Lost Memories
by AustrianKnuxadowFan
Summary: Eggman built a machine, which he needed the master emerald for. He wanted to use it on Sonic, but accidently hit Shadow and Knuckles. This caused them to lose all their memories. As they wake up in Eggmans base, the mad scientist feeds lies about Sonic into their heads in order to make them work for him. But… not all lies were about the hedgehog alone though. Knuxadow
1. Chapter 1

Lost Memories

I will honesty say…. I never had thought that this would ever happen but sometimes fate seems to hide the weirdest surprises. I assume though… afterwards it's not as weird as at first thought. Oh? You seem confused. I guess you don´t know then what I am actually talking about, am I right? Very well. Let me tell you a story of what I have experienced then. A story that you may, at the end of it, find very hilarious or maybe idiotic. But let me inform you, that it never lay in my hands what happened. Destiny just seems to love taking paths no one would have ever seen coming...

* * *

"Argh! Can´t you just get lost already, you little pests?!" Dr. Eggman shouted of his Eggmobile down to his three chasers.

"Na, where would be the fun of it then?" a cocky blue hedgehog grinned up as he followed the way slower, but for him out of reach, flying vehicle of his arch nemesis.

Close behind Sonic, his two fellow rivals Shadow and Knuckles followed. Each for their own reasons. As for Shadow it was because of an emerald that Eggman stole from him a few weeks ago when he wasn´t looking. On the other hand for Knuckles…. It was such an obvious reason that it isn´t really worth mentioning. Eggman just had the brilliant idea to steal the Master Emerald… once again. Like it was his favourite hobby. At least for the red guardian it seemed just like that. Even though a chase like this was far from being something new to either of them, there still was heavy, very heavy, tension in the air. Not because they feared to be unable to get the emeralds back from the bald man, but because of the presence of Shadow and Knuckles at the same time, at the same place. The two quilled rivals of the blue blur were far from being on good terms with each other. Whenever they met each other, the air got heavy and danger was almost touchable, so thick was the tension between the two. The reason behind their blank hate towards one another, was unknown to anyone but them. They wouldn´t tell the others, no matter how persistent their friends were about it. It confused them greatly since Shadow and Knuckles used to be something you could actually call _friends_. But this changed almost rapidly, from one day to the other. Their once respectful behaviour vanished and a, most if the time, nonviolent war inflamed between the two chaos benders. A war of words may probably be the best way to describe it. A war of words that… sometimes leads to violence between them. And if that was happening, any living being in their surroundings better brought themselves to a save place. Once a fight enraged, they didn´t care much about what or who was around them.

"Just give me back my Emerald, you bad Santa Claus fake!" an obviously annoyed Knuckles yelled, his white fangs showing as he did so.

As an answer Eggman just gave more speed, what did nothing to calm the rage that slowly built up inside the red guardian. A growl and a suppressed, but still pretty good hearable, "god dammit" left Knuckles throat when he tried to keep up with the mad scientist. Instead to calm his thick-headed friend, Sonic turned around to face Shadow and Knuckles while running backwards at the same speed without effort and smiled, much to the echidnas' annoyance. For him that smile seemed taunting or amused. Knuckles never were the best with interpret things like that in a, for him, serious situation. The smile Sonic was actually wearing, was just his normal cocky one. One that Knuckles saw who knows how many times already but still failed to see the true meaning at this very moment.

"Come on guys! Let's get him now. It's getting boring to chase him" Sonic said in a tone that made it pretty clear for Eggman to be unable to escape from them, or more specific, from him.

"Wha? Sonic! I can´t run faster!" the guardian panted which was in vain as the blue hero zoomed off before he was even able to finish what he had to say.

This made a frustrated growl find its way out from Knuckles as he tried to speed up more but he just couldn´t run any faster and the fact that his stamina slowly ran out didn´t do any better. Not that his stamina was bad in any way. Quite the reverse! His reserves were admirable, but he just wasn´t a runner like Sonic or the black hedgehog beside him. He was not used to run for such a long time and this got now the better of him. Shadow, who was quiet for the most of their chase, moved his eyes to the panting echidna. He wasn´t one for pulling jokes, but if there was one thing he was, it was being awfully honest. Especially to those he didn´t like. And Knuckles happened to be one of them. To tell the least, most hate was coming from the black hedgehog, as he was the one who started it all in the first place. Stubborn as Knuckles is, he didn´t ignore and went right for the offense. This wasn´t simple teasing. This was pure, blank hate. And it was only growing.

"Hmph, shouldn´t have joined if you can´t keep up, Red" Shadow said without much emotions while running cosily beside the person he wasn´t fond of.

For that Shadow earned a hateful glare which didn´t affect him much, if at all.

"Shut the fuck up, you idiot! It is MY emerald Eggman stole and I will NOT sit around doing nothing!"

"Tsk, like I give a shit about your problems with this idiotic rock" Shadow carelessly added, what made Knuckles hiss dangerously at him, which again left him unaffected.

If Knuckles could, he would jump at this hedgehogs' throat in a matter of a few moments but that was probably not a good idea while running as fast as they did. Beside the fact that this was Shadows' pitch. Dodging would be the least of his problems, if Knuckles was dumb enough to think it would work. Of course the red head wasn´t this stupid. So he just swallowed it for now, but that wouldn´t mean, he can´t get revenge sometime later. Soon Shadows ears perked up at a familiar sound up high in the air. Moving his eyes up, he saw Tails' biplane passing them. A taunting idea creeped into Shadows' mind and so he moved his eyes slowly back at Knuckles who was calling him all sorts of insulting names while focusing on what was in front of them, instead of looking at Shadow. Not like the hedgehog cared. It caught Knuckles a little of guard when the ultimate lifeform suddenly interrupted his speech of insults.

"If you`re done now, let me give you some advice, _guardian_. Since you already look like you would collapse any second by that bit of running, I suggest you to take a flight with your yellow, two tailed friend. When you break down, you are more useless than you already are" he said for Knuckles out of the blue and in such a cold and hateful way, shivers would run down everyone's back.

The red guardian stared at the other for what felt like an eternity, even though it was just a few seconds in real. When his purple eyes locked with the piercing red orbs of Shadow, it seemed like everything around them was gone and they were the only two being in existence. How did this guy even dare to say something like this?! A rush of adrenaline and hate ran through the red males' body. Muscles tensed and eyes started glowing dangerously. Luckily for Shadow, he has a very good reaction because Knuckles decided to go for an attack towards him after his last comment. That was the final straw that was missing for Knuckles rage to take over. With a sudden move, he jumped to his side with one hell of a pissed of face. He was going to smash that hedgehogs' face in and he would have done so, if Shadow hadn´t dodged his attack fast enough. Instead of the red streaked hedgehog, a massive stone of granite was the echidnas' victim. It broke into thousand little pieces after the impact. When Knuckles realized that he had missed, he gritted his teeth hard and hissed furiously at the other quilled creature. Shadow didn´t stop running but was looking back, unimpressed of the sheer strength Knuckles could muster into just one blow. At least he seemed to be underwhelmed. On the inside he had to admit that this physical power did give him at least a little respect. And he hated to admit that. If that blow, which broke a granite stone like that, hit him, there was no way he would have gotten out of it without broken bones. Thanks to his speed and good reaction that this wasn´t the case. Howsoever, a very angry growl left Knuckles throat when he watched the hedgehog running. There was no way to catch up with the other anymore. For that Shadow got too much distance. It was a hard time for Knuckles to not lose complete self-control which was clearly seen at the way his body shook in rage. He wouldn´t get any use of going on rage mode now. His primary goal was to get the Master Emerald back, so he took a very deep breath to calm himself before recapturing tracking.

"Pathetic" Shadow said quietly to himself, when he saw Knuckles starting to run again.

He turned his attention away from the person behind him but back in front of him. A fight with the echidna was the last thing that laid in Shadows interested right now. The reason he even joined this chase was for the Chaos Emerald. Nothing else. Even though it may not look like it with all the things he said to piss the guardian off. Soon he was out of sight for Knuckles. Growls, hisses and any other known noises of rage left his mouth.

"That son of a bitch! I'll show you!" he growled, that rush of adrenaline long gone.

If Shadow thinks, Knuckles wouldn´t persevere this running, he was so going to smash his believes into shards. No way he was going to shout up to Tails to pick him up. No way he would prove Shadow right. No way he was throwing his pride away like this. He was so going to prove this idiotic black hedgehog that he was sitting through this. No matter that his lungs burned and screamed for air, just like his legs longed for a break. Something he didn´t think of was… did he really do this for proving something to Shadow? Or only to himself? Bringing his body to its limits like that. He always said to himself that he doesn´t give a damn what Shadow says about him, but it was pretty clear this was the result of something the dark furred one said. And if it wasn´t clear before, then it sure as hell was now. Knuckles, on the other hand, didn´t want to admit that to himself of course. He wasn´t going to show weakness to Shadow, no matter what. Gritting his teeth hard enough to be visible he keep on running to catch up with the hedgehogs. It took him several minutes before the others finally got in sight again. Much to his detriment the fight with Eggman was already over. The egg shaped man wasn´t even there anymore. The only thing left from the doctor was his Eggmobil smashed down and lying completely broken on the ground with Sonic standing in front of it and rubbing his nose. Once his eyes got sight of this, Knuckles started to slow down. By the end of it he stumbled before finally falling on his knees when he halted. Inhaling as much air as his lungs could hold, in deep pant like breaths. Sonic looked worried when Knuckles finally reached them. He thought Knuckles would eventually stop somewhere behind them because he reached his running peek, but obviously he was proven wrong. The echidna didn´t stop once except for that short time he attacked Shadow to let off steam. But that was far from being a real break. Shadow, who was standing away some distance, looked over at the scene from his eye corners. He truly didn´t expect for the echidna to bite through it. Not like this was the point of the whole running but still. Though Knuckles looked miserable, Shadow wore his usual hard and expressionless face.

"How said. Pathetic" he thought, after closing his eyes and turning away with his arms crossed, to stand there with his back facing them.

At the same time Sonic kneeled down to Knuckles to ask if everything was alright while laying a hand on the shoulder of the panting red echidna. As an answer Sonic got a very annoyed glare which made him feel a sweatdrop run down his head.

"Do I look alright to you?!" the guardian snapped at his blue rival.

That made Sonic jump back slightly at the unusual cold tone. This wasn´t the normal annoyed intonation Knuckles normally had. The sound of his current voice was cold as ice and hard as solid steel. Whatever had happened after the blue blur ran off, must have pissed his rival off **bad. **Very, very bad. Eyes moved over to Shadow to see if the other hedgehog gives any kind of reaction, only to find out he was not even paying attention towards them. With a sigh he turned back to a still very annoyed Knuckles.

"Geeez, sorry. Was just a question. Sorry for worrying" Sonic answered, which caused a displeased snort as a reaction towards him. "By the way… got your emerald back, buddy"

After that, the still panting echidna slowly stood up. His legs slightly shaking and barely able to hold his own weight. The blue hedgehog tried to give him some assistance to only get pushed off again. Glares exchanged but Knuckles obviously had the upper hand in that one, since he already was angry to a point where he wouldn´t hesitate to beat someone hospital ready. Though it wasn´t Sonic Knuckles was angry with and he probably shoved him away rougher than he intended to do, there was a high chance he would get at him if he dares to make a stupid comment. Good thing Sonic is smart enough to see this sign and kept any comment he would normally spurt out to himself. He wasn´t exactly eager to get beaten to near death by his red rival. Well enough he knows what the other is capable off. When the other finally managed to stand up, a harsh "Hmpf" came from the red head before turning towards his emerald. Knuckles went over to it to check if everything was alright with it. A slight pout became visible as soon as Knuckles turned his back towards Sonic.

"Not even a "thank you"? Tsk… rude" ran through the blue blurs mind when he watched the guardian.

His ears perked up when he heard the familiar sound of Tails' tails rotating in the air. With crossed arms he turned towards his little brother who was landing beside him no five seconds later. Tails took notice that his red friend was very annoyed but he missed out on why, even though he was passing him and Shadow when it happened. Admittingly the young fox heard the sound of something breaking but he was unable to see what it was because his planes' wing happened to be in the way. Tails hoped to become an answer of his older brother in that case.

"What happened that Knuckles is this annoyed?" he questioned and looked up at Sonic.

"I have no idea, bro. Slowly I get the feeling that this his normal state" he answered.

For the last comment he earned a warning growl from the red echidna. Hearing that, Sonic decided it would be for the better to not challenge is luck any further. Knuckles made it clear he wasn´t going to put up with his shit for much longer. To anyones luck the red echidna still had enough self-control to contain himself. The tension coming from him was still very noticeable.

"I…. see…" Tails replied. He wouldn´t ask more about Knuckles but turned to look over at Shadow. "Um…. Sonic? Why did Shadow actually help? Not that I mind. It's nice of him"

The echidnas' eyes twitched in annoyance that the mentioning of the name of the person he despised greatly. He took a deep breath to hold himself back from making a nasty comment.

"Tsk, like it's important!" he thought to himself.

Before Sonic had the chance to reply, Shadow cut him off. His yellow boys ears perked up in surprise.

"Don´t get used to it, Tails" the far older hedgehog said while turning to look at the child. "The only reason I joined was to get my emerald back"

Once again one of Knuckles' eyes twitched. He slowly turned around to glare at the black hedgehog. Of course Shadow felt that heavy stare on him and moved his eyes to meet them with Knuckles' own. As soon as that Knuckles slowly made his way up to the other. Sonic and Tails exchanged peeks. The air got heavier and heavier. A few moments later Knuckles was almost nose to nose with Shadow, who looked as cool as a cucumber.

"Well, excuse _me_. This is not "your" emerald" the red guardian stated with a voice hard as rock.

"Oh, is that so? It isn´t yours either since I don´t see your name on it" Shadow replied pretty calmly yet still cold enough, obviously not effected by the dangerous voice towards him.

"There is no need for that. I am the guardian of the Master Emerald AND the Chaos Emeralds" Knuckles gave back, seemingly not effected by Shadows tone of voice either.

That was probably not the best comeback Knuckles could come up with. It exposed a very vulnerable spot of the red guardian. To his own misfortune, Shadow took use of that.

"In this case… you are doing an awful job"

Silence took place over them. Knuckles stared at the person in front of him, obviously a little stunned by the last thing he said. Sonic and Tails watched the scene a little wide-eyed. Both knew that this was a point Knuckles hated to hear. Not like he really was that awful. People just tend to make a fool out of him or rub it in his face. The moment Knuckles hands clenched into fists, Sonic knew if he doesn´t go between the two, a fight will enrage.

"WHY YOU?!" Knuckles yelled out in rage, lifting one fist to punch the loudmouth in front of him.

At this moment Shadow got into a defensive pose, ready to battle the outraged echidna to the ground. If it wasn´t for the blue speedster, who was rushing between them in time, the fight would have begun the moment Knuckles raised his fist. It caught the echidna just like the hedgehog of guard when their faces were covered by gloved hands to get pushed away from each other.

"Oh cut it out, you two! We aren´t getting anywhere with this! Besides, we are all friends!" he said out loud as he kept his rivals on distance.

"I am not friends with that hedgehog, Sonic!" Knuckles growled as he made Sonics hand leave his face alone.

"I am not friends with the echidna either"

The blue hedgehog felt a sweatdrop run down his head. At least they had the same opinion once in their lives. With a sigh Sonic rubbed his eyes in frustration. He had no idea what to do with them both. If he just knew how to bring them back on good terms but for that he would need to know how it all started. No chance Shadow and Knuckles would tell him. He tried a lot of times already. He could just hope that this will settle between themselves soon. The very moment Sonic rubbed his eyes, Shadows and Knuckles' eyes met in a contest of death staring. Both of their gazes freezing cold, like only the other exists. This was far from an innocent rivalry like Sonic had with either of them. They saw each other as enemies, despite being on the same side… most of the time. While the three adults acted more like 5 year olds, Tails stood beside and couldn´t help but wonder.

"…. What wanted Eggman with the Master Emerald in the first place…?" he asked more to himself than to the others, but all of their gazes moved to the younger one.

"For sure he just wanted to steal its power for… whatever reason" Knuckles stated while crossing his arms.

This got the yellow fox boy to look at the older red male. "No doubt, Knuckles, but normally he would only try to get all of the Chaos Emeralds for that"

"Maybe he needed more power?" Sonic predicated which turned all the attention towards him. "I mean… sure. The seven Chaos Emeralds are already extremely powerful but the M.E. still is on a complete different level"

This made Tails' head tilt to the side. Sure the possibility was there but…

"Why would Eggman go through all this trouble for that? Whatever he wanted, I am sure the Chaos Emerald would have been enough"

Sonic had no answer to that. He could only assume what Eggmans' true intention was. Knuckles, for his own reasons, couldn´t care less why the doctor wanted the emerald. All he cared for was getting it back, which succeeded thanks to his blue companion. Listening to their guessed made an own idea pop up in Shadows mind. He would probably get murdered for that one, but he couldn´t hold himself back.

"Probably because it's a lot easier to steal the Master Emerald from this walking disaster area than getting all of the Chaos Emeralds. Even Rouge is able to steal this thing almost every week" the dark hedgehog said matter-of-factly, not caring how much his words truly dig into the red echidnas' soul.

Sonic stared almost shocked at his main rival after saying THAT. If that wasn´t bringing Knuckles on the edge, he had no idea what would. Slowly his eyes wandered over to the guardian, whose eyes twitched once again in pure annoyance. Fists were clenching once more and so were his teeth. It almost looked like he was going to explode by any second. To his, or better, to all of their surprise Knuckles then just turned around, went up to the Master Emerald to pick it up and made his way to leave. No more word was coming from the echidna but the built up rage could be felt by anyone. As a matter of fact, Knuckles decided there was no use in staying any longer. He already tried to attack Shadow twice and he had the Master Emerald back. He wouldn´t even bother to make a third attempt. With a few surprised blinks Sonic watched Knuckles leave. As soon as the other was out of sight, his surprised gaze turned into an annoyed glare and turned towards Shadow. With a raised eyebrow he returned the gaze, less annoyed but more questioning.

"What?"

"Are you for real?! Why are you provoking Knuckles like that?! You're not even that harsh towards me and that should mean something! You know, one day you will get yourself killed!" Sonic explained angrily.

"I know"

"Huh?"

"I know what Red is capably off but he would never succeed in trying to kill me. He can try whatever the hell he wants, I am still the Ultimate Lifeform" Shadow stated with crossed arms.

"Say that again when he managed to break your legs. Believe me… he would! Just what the heck happened between you two? You weren´t like this in the past!" a very annoyed Sonic said, making fists and demanding to know.

A careless snort was pretty much his only answer, followed by what seems to be Shadows favourite line.

"How about it's none of your business, Faker?"

"Everything is my business, _Shadz_" a still obviously annoyed Sonic replied to his informationless answer.

With rolling his red eyes he started to turn away, much to Sonics displease. The black and red streaked hedgehog wasn´t going any deeper into this topic. He made it obvious enough but if Sonic refused to stop there, then he will just take his leave.

"Hey! Where ya going?!" the blue hero shouted after him, ready to run up to him to stop him from leaving.

"Somewhere" was his only answer and before Sonic could even react, Shadow chaos controlled himself away, leaving a pretty dumbfounded blue hedgehog behind. Sonic looked at the spot his rival last stood on before turning his head to meet the worried stare of his little brother. Not even Tails had any idea of what else they could do with them. Shadow and Knuckles obviously didn´t want to send this problem out of the world. They were sure if it continues like this, soon or later one of the two will get himself killed. By the looks of it the chance was pretty high that it was Shadow who will take this fate. Dropping his ears, Sonic let out a long sigh, hating the feeling of being unable to do a damn thing.

Meanwhile at Doctor Eggmans base, the human just came back from his failed mission. He growled quietly to himself. Why can´t those little rats just stay out of his plans for once?! With some silent swearing he then entered one of the many rooms of his base. There he gets greeted by two cheeky little robots.

"Oh, you are already back, boss?" the small round red and black coloured robot asked innocently.

"As you can see, yes, Orbot"

"And let me guess! You didn´t get the big green rock, huh?" an overexcited yellow-black robot asked.

That question got Eggman to let out an annoyed sigh and reply just like that. "No, Cubot..!"

"I am sure, next time you will get it, Doctor. I know you must have been very close this time" Orbot said in his fake friendly tone.

Of course he knew that his creator would fail, but admitting that would be his cause of death. Or in better words, his cause of getting thrown in the old metal thrash. Cubot, being as confused as normally, didn´t get Orbots' lie. In contrast to his red companion, he actually liked his creator and always meant what he said.

"Wait… didn´t you tell me that you knew he would fail again?" he asked and scratched his metallic head in confusion.

The red robots cameras widened slightly at the honest statement of his buddy and covered his loudspeakers in a matter of seconds. To his luck, Cubot wasn´t speaking that loud so didn´t hear clearly what he said.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, Boss!" Orbot said, almost cutting his creators question off and hitting Cubot on his metallic head.

"Ow!"

Narrowing his eyes he turned his back towards his creations, mumbling something barely hearable. When they were out of the humans' range of vision, the red robot wrapped his arm around the other to whisper to him.

"Stupid! I told you to not say that out loud!"

"I'm sorry… I will remember next time" Cubot apologized while bringing his index fingers together.

"I doubt that but alright…" Orbot sighed and let go of the other.

The red robot then turned around and followed his boss. After Cubot noted that he flew after him. The doctor was working on his plan. The same plan he needed Knuckles' precious emerald for. Orbot landed beside the blueprints and looked at them. Cubot, somehow, missed the edge and hit a lamp. Both, Eggman and Orbot, felt the heavy urge to facepalm and did exactly that.

"Cubot! Can´t you watch out?!" the already annoyed human barked at him.

"Sorry!" the yellow robot apologized and hovered up on the desk to sit down beside Orbot.

When it was silent again Dr. Eggman turned his attention back to his blueprints. Four curious cameras were watching their creator work. Though they were never allowed to help him with his plans, they loved watching Eggman. Even Orbot, as strange as it seems. It was admirable with how much passion he worked at them, no matter that they fail pretty much all the time. How the doctor didn´t get frustrated from them unsuccessful is beyond to them. Guess he must really love what he is doing. Coming up with new plans and such.

"…boss?" the small red robot asked to get his creators attentions.

"What is it, Orbot?"

"You tried to get the Master Emerald, right? But what for exactly? You still didn´t tell us" he asked while looking at his boss curious as a child would be.

"For a machine" Eggman answered after a small pause and started to roll up his blueprints.

Curious as Cubot was, he had to ask what kind of machine that would be. To answer his question, the doctor stated it as being a surprise. This answer made both robots look at each other as if they didn´t know what that should mean. They really didn´t know. Normally Eggman always informed them on what he was currently working. It confused them why this one was different. But since they had no power over the man with the moustache, they couldn´t force him to tell them. Seemed like they had to be patient and see what will happen. When Eggman started to laugh his trademark evil laugh, both of the small robots looked back up at him.

"You will find out soon enough, don´t worry! And soon enough I will try to get the Master Emerald again from this dumb echidna to finally finish my masterpiece! And then… no one can stop me! Muahahahahaha!"

If Orbot could breath, a long and deep sigh would have been made by him this very moment. The doctor stated this after every plan he finished or was soon-to-be-finished. It was kind of sad. Cubot on the other hand, shared his creators' enthusiasm and clapped his hands for him. When his red friend didn´t join in, he turned his head towards him and tilted his head. Noticing that he returned his gaze, just less enthusiastic but more bored of hearing this every time.

"How often did he say "no one can stop me" already since he built us?" Orbot then asked out of interest.

At that strange question Cubot couldn´t help but scratch his head before answering.

"Uhh…. 1735 times. Why?"

"I see... well… then let's update it into 1736 times" he replied, while closing his cameras and crossing his arms.

Blinking curiously at the other as if he just solved the mystery of life, the yellow-black robots' enthusiasm returned. Feeling that stare on him, made Orbot reopen his cameras and feeling slightly nervous at the way the other looked at him. A big question mark appeared above his head.

"How did you know it were already this many times?!" Cubot asked in the most curious voice he could do.

For a few moment Orbot just remained silent. He waited for the other to say anything else, but when he didn´t, the red robot couldn´t really believe Cubot were actually serious about his question. Slowly he moved both hands up to cover his cameras in frustration. He knew it didn´t really lay in Eggmans' hands on what kind of personality they got, which was a mystery in itself already, but why couldn´t he built one who was just a little more serious and less stupid? He didn´t hate Cubot. Far from it. But it could be very frustrating sometimes to put up with his childish behaviour at times. And one time just happened to be now.

"Oh Cubot…"

That curious spark in the yellow bots blue eyes vanished at the tone of voice that came out of his friends' loudspeakers. Instead a confused look returned when he tilted his head to scratch it once more. Having no clue why the others mood changed so suddenly. Like most of the time failing to understand that his attitude was the cause of it.

To be continued…

* * *

**Decided to rewrite the first chapter of this story because the original reminded me way to much on my first 2 stories. And I hate those with a passion nowdays... So here have a new, way better written first chapter of my small little Knuxadow story. Hope you enjoy this one more than the original!~ See you! 3**


	2. Chapter 2

Lost Memories Chap 2

About a week later everything was peaceful again. Eggman made no other move to steal the master emerald, so they expected that he gave up on the idea. Sonic was minding his own business again and so was everyone else, except for Amy because she wanted to mind her business together with the blue hedgehog. Also on Angel Island everything was peaceful. Knuckles sat on the last step of the master emeralds shrine, enjoying the peace and the sun. He had his arms crossed and eyes closed, listening to the singing birds. The red echidna sighed in relief and smiles to himself. Slowly the guardian dozed off into a nap, not expecting that a certain hedgehog was going to visit him soon.

Somewhere else, near the cliff, said hedgehog was going for a walk. The black and red streaked one searched for something to do, since he was bored. He walked towards the cliff and stopped when he was almost passing an apple tree.

"..."

Shadow looked up at the plant. A lot fruity looking, red apples were shimmering in the sun. The black hedgehogs' stomach starts growling at the view. Holding it Shadow thought about juping up to get one of the fruits. Soon enough his decision was made. So he jumped up and landed on a thick branch. He looked around and spotted an especially fruity looking apple. Balancing easily over the branch, he then grabbed the fruit. His first bite was taken before he jumped down again and continued going towards the cliff. As soon as he noticed that the boredom was coming back, he half lidded his eyes and took another bite of his apple.

"God dammit! I wished I had something to do! This boredom makes me crazy! I would also make a race with Sonic but the only time I would like to I can´t find him. How typical..." he thought to himself, annoyed by the fact that he didn´t find something interesting to do.

A few minutes later he reached the cliff and went along it. Shadow thought hard about what he could do, but he didn´t get an idea. Annoyed he took another bite of his apple. After a while, when he took the last bite, he stopped.

"Damn" was all he thought.

He sighed and looked at the sea. The blue water was sparkling in the sun. But this wasn´t the interesting thing about the salty sea. In fact, the deep blue was reflecting something. The reflection was catching the dark hedgehogs' interest. While tilting his head, he then looked up to spot the gigantic flying island. A few minutes passed as the black hedgehog watched the floating island. Then he started to smirk.

"Well... since I have nothing to do, I think that would be a nice play. I´m sure the echidna also needs a small distraction from his boring job" the black hedgehog thought.

Shadow throw the rest of his apple away and pulled out his Chaos Emerald.

"Chaos. Control!"

With that and a green bright light he was gone. The hedgehog landed in the middle of the islands forest. Before looking around, he shook his head and cleaned himself a little.

"Guess I missed my target a little bit, but that doesn't matter" he thought.

He put his emerald away and started going to the shrine of the master emerald. Knuckles, on the other hand, was still sitting on the last step of the shrine. He took a nap since everything was still peaceful. Slowly he started to wake up because he felt some strange energy. This energy made the fur on his back stand up. Only one could make that happen. In alarm he opened his eyes and sat up straight. His eyes wandered around the exposed area around the shrine. At first he couldn´t see anyone but he just knew _he_ is coming closer by every second. He stood up and looked into one certain direction. Just a few seconds later the birds stopped singing and everything went quiet. And there the black hedgehog stood. In the shadow of the trees, his red eyes staring up at the red echidna on the shrine. Shadow smirked while the echidna narrowed his eyes.

"Hello there, Red"

"What are you doing on my island?" Knuckles asked with a voice that promised danger.

Of course Knuckles still remembered Shadows behaviour from the week before and if he was given a chance now, he surely was going to get his revenge on the black and red streaked hedgehog. He swore to himself that he would make him pay for that.

"Well, I was bored and thought, why not come for a visit?" the black hedgehog answered, coming out of the shadows and went closer to the shrine.

"I warn you just one time, Shadow. Leave my island right now or you´ll regret it" Knuckles warned and he meant it.

"I don´t think so. I didn´t even had my fun yet" Shadow replied, crossing his arms in front of his chest and wearing a slightly bored expression, as if this was just a game that started to get uninteresting.

The red guardian started growling dangerously while the other stopped after passing half the way between shrine and forest. His eyes moved up to meet the cold stare of Knuckles.

"Well, if you don´t want to leave by yourself, I will make you!" the red guardian growled, ready to throw his unwanted visitor over the edge of the island by force.

"Heh, I would like to see you try" Shadow grinned, getting ready himself for some entertainment.

The two looked at each other. Purple meets red. Everything was quiet. Not one bird was heard. The only sound noticeable was the wind. Then all of sudden Knuckles jumped down, right at Shadow. The black hedgehog folded his ears back and jumped out of the way what made Knuckles punch nothing but the ground. The echidna growled and looked for Shadow, getting back on his feet and attacking him right away once more. Shadow blocked the echidnas' punches at first but eventually started to fight back.

"Don´t you have something else to do or is there a normal reason that you are here too?!" Knuckles asked with a hard voice, while he keep on punching after his opponent.

"Actually, I don´t. And if you would have listened before then you would know that I told you that I was bored" the hedgehog replied, dodging the punches of the strong echidna.

"Grrrr"

Shadow made another move to punch the echidna into the face, but Knuckles was able to dodge just in time. The black hedgehog smirked and made a roundhouse kick right into the echidnas' stomach. Yelps of pain filled the air as Knuckles took a few steps back and held his stomach. Shadow took his chance and jumped up. With wide eyes he watched what the other was up to. When the ultimate lifeform lifted his hand, the alarm bells in Knuckles head started to ring.

"Chaos-"

Only hearing this word, made it clear for Knuckles with what attack Shadow came up next. That and the fact that he jumped up in the air before lifting his hand, to make his signature move even more powerful. Getting away from where he stood was extremely important now.

"-Spear!" the black hedgehog shouted and pulled his arm down fast, sending the energy spears right at Knuckles.

In a flash, Knuckles dug into the ground, making the spears hit nothing but the ground. A growl left Shadows throat.

"I have to admit, he has a good reaction" he said to himself.

As soon as he landed, he took good looks around. Shadow prepared himself for getting attacked any second. His ears were perked up, catching every single noise yet he couldn´t hear the echidna.

"Where is he? Not that he fled" Shadow thought, while still looking around for any sign of the echidna.

He had no idea how wrong he was, because just in that moment when this though ran through his mind, the ground below his feet shattered. Shadow widened his eyes and looked down. The only thing he saw, was how his feet were grabbed by two gloved hands before they were lifted up in the air, making the black-red hedgehog hit the ground mercilessly and with full force. He yelped out. More in surprise than pain but still. Knuckles grinned and started spinning Shadow around, eventually letting go of the black hedgehog. After the guardian sent him flying, Shadow flew straight against the wall of the shrine. Soon enough he made contact with the stoned wall and cried out in pain, before falling down right on his knees and hands. Groans left his mouth and so did some blood. When he looked up, he saw the red echidna standing about 10 meters away from him. Knuckles looked at him with a blank expression.

"I told you that you will regret it, Shadow" he said, his face not changing one bit.

All Shadow did, was to chuckle while kneeling up. This was his way of showing that he was far from being done. Knuckles eye twitched in annoyance howsoever. To tell the truth, it would have surprised the red head if it was that easy. Shadow is the ultimate lifeform after all. He knew that, though that name meant nothing to Knuckles. He was still going to kick this hedgehog off his island.

"Let´s see if you still can laugh when I am done with you!" the red guardian yelled and ran right towards Shadow, ready to finish the fight.

The black hedgehog waited for the perfect moment to dodge the punch. When he did so, Knuckles obviously missed and punched the wall instead. He widened his eyes when he realized that his hand was stuck. He looked down, meeting Shadows red eyes once again. The black and red hedgehog had an evil grin on his face.

"Finished, huh? Well, we just started" he said.

He pushed himself of the ground, ramming his knee into the guardians' stomach. Knuckles´ eyes went wide and yelled out in pain, splitting out some blood like Shadow did before. Taking his chance Shadow then started spin dashing and attacked Knuckles again. Helplessly the echidna was exposed to the hedgehogs attack. The pain was too much and his hand was still stuck but due the force of his enemies attack, the rock was slowly giving in and Knuckles came free. It still didn´t help him much because Shadow made them move away from the shrine but straight towards the trees. Knuckes gritted his teeth and tried to get his feet on the ground what he managed to do. Shadow was no longer able to push Knuckles back but he didn´t stop spin dashing. While opening one eye, the echidna looked at the spinning hedgehog. Some blood came out of Knuckles mouth but he ignored it. He moved his hands on each side of Shadow, trying to make the hedgehog stop spinning. When Shadow noted what Knuckles attempted to do, he speeded up his spinning. The red echidna got pushed back about a meter but managed to get a hold of the other. He gritted his teeth more, showing his sharp teeth and used all his power to get Shadow at least a few centimetres away from his body. When he managed to do that, he jumped out of the way, letting Shadow flew right towards the trees. The black hedgehog broke some of them until he hit something harder. He stopped spinning and fell back on his back, yelping out again. When he opened his eyes all he saw was a tree falling on him. The black hedgehogs' eyes widened and made an attempt to get away, but it was too late. The plant fell on him what caused Shadow to yell out in pain another time. Knuckles watched it all and took deep breaths. A stabbing pain appeared in his stomach. His eyes were shut tight in discomfort at the same time.

"..."

When the guardian opened one eye, he saw how blood was dropping out of his mouth. He shook his head and wiped it away. Moments later he looked up and towards where Shadow was lying. Slowly he started to make his way towards him. When he reached him, he stopped and looked down at his unwanted visitor. The black hedgehog was lying on his stomach, pinned down under the tree. A deep groan escaped from him. Knuckles panted really bad and slowly turned around. Hearing a twig crack Shadow gritted his teeth and forced himself to open one eye. At first his vision was blurry but when it got batter he saw how Knuckles was slowly going away from him.

"T-this f-fight i-isn´t over yet, E-echidna...!" he managed to say.

It was more like a forced whisper but somehow it was still loud enough for Knuckles to hear. Said one stopped and turned his head towards the on the ground pinned hedgehog.

"Don´t be absurd. This fight is over, don´t you see?" he panted.

Shadow gritted his teeth more while looking at Knuckles with only one eye open.

"Beside... you´re stuck under that tree, so how should you continue in the first place? ...well, that doesn't matter anyway" he said while turning his head away again and continued to go. "If you manage to get out there, you better leave or I will throw you down the island personally"

Not like he wouldn´t do that, since it was his original plan but he hoped Shadow learned his lesson and left on his own terms. He had no idea how much he was wrong. As soon as the red echidnas' attention was elsewhere, the black hedgehogs started to growl dangerously.

"We will see about that!" he said to himself.

Shadow put his hands as good as he was able to on the ground and used all his left strength to push himself up together with the tree that was pinning him down. He shut his eyes tight and gritted his teeth. When he lifted himself and the heavy plant up enough, he pushed himself with the assistance of his feet away and managed to get away from under the tree. The plant fell back on the same spot while the black and red hedgehog was kneeling beside it, taking in deep breaths. After he caught his breath again he looked towards the echidna who didn´t seem to have noticed it. He stood up and almost stumbled over his own feet per accident but managed to catch himself. His eyes wandered back to Knuckles. Ears were folded back on his head when he started to move towards him slowly at first.

"Now we are going to finish this fight!" he thought and started to run up to him one more time.

When Knuckles heard a noise behind him he looked up and turned around. His eyes widened as Shadow was racing up to him. To block Shadow, he locking his hands with the black hedgehog own two. Purple and red eyes met once again. Both creatures gritting their teeth. Neither one of them wanted to give up against the other. Then, almost at the same time, both of them flinched because the pain was just too much to handle anymore. Shadow slowly fell to the side while Knuckles first fell on his knees and then on his stomach. As soon as they hit the ground, both passed out. Again, everything went quiet. Just like when the fight between them first began. Both of them were lying on the ground motionlessly. After some minutes the birds' started to sing again. What Shadow and Knuckles didn´t know was that, a couple of hundred meters away, in the air in his huge battleship Dr. Eggman watched the whole scene of the two like it was the best TV series he had the honour to see in a long time. Originally he was on his way to steal the Mater Emerald again, but when he saw the fighting he leaned back and enjoyed the show. A small chuckle escaped his mouth. Orbot and Cubot, who were sitting beside him, looked at the doctor.

"What is so funny, Boss?" the yellow robot asked.

"I am just amused~" he replied.

"How come?" Orbot asked.

"Because now it will be easy to take the emerald, thanks to Shadow~ Thanks to him I saved a lot of unnecessary trouble" the doctor smiled.

"And... that is a bad thing?" Cubot asked tilting his head obviously not getting his creators point.

The red robot looked at him and facepalmed while Eggman gave him a glare.

"Idiot! Of course it´s not a bad thing! Thanks to Shadow I don´t have to deal with this stubborn echidna and can easily take his emerald!" he explained to him.

"Oh, I get it!" Cubot cheered.

"What a surprise" the doctor said and rolled his eyes.

Then he started to contribute his battleship towards Angel Island. Soon enough the huge machine floated over the landscape. Eggman got on his new Eggmobil and flew down to the surface of Knuckles' home. He flew over the two still unconscious creatures and couldn´t help but smirked.

"Hehehe, thank you, Shadow. I own you something" he thought will grinning to himself in glee.

The doctor brought his attention back to what he actually wanted. His eyes landed at the shrine and came closer towards the stoned building. He flew up, right over the Master Emerald and grabbed it with a gripper arm. When he had it he made his way back into his battleship. Eggman looked down and grinned, when he saw that the island surrender to gravity and started to fall. The sight always made the doctor happy inside- Hopefully someone would get hurt as soon as the island made contact with the earths' surface.

"Hehehe, finally this 'Cat and mouse game' is over. Now I can finish my machine at least!" he said while going back into the cockpit.

"Who are you talking to, Doctor?" Cubot asked.

"No one, I as talking to myself" he replied.

"Oh alright"

Eggman sat down and contributed his battleship back to his base. At the same time on the cliff Sonic and Silver were looking for Shadow, not expecting that soon an unwanted surprise was given to them.

"Say, Sonic... are you sure we will find Shadow here of all places?" Silver asked.

"I don´t know... but we searched almost anywhere else already. Beside, for some weird reason he likes being here"

"How do you know?" the silver furred hedgehog asked and raised an eyebrow.

"Because I see him often going here"

"Ah"

They continued walking for a few minutes until Sonic got bored of walking slow. A pout found its way on the blue blurs muzzle before he looked over at Silver. The silver furred hedgehog looked around calmly and smiled, enjoying every bit of the sun and the nature.

"...okay!" Sonic said all of sudden.

Silver turned his head towards him and a big question mark appeared over his head.

"What?" he asked.

"Could we please speed up a little? That´s too slow for me" the blue hedgehog said, jumping in front of Silver with his face facing the younger hedgehog, going backwards in the progress.

"But Sonic-"

"No buts! Come on, Silver. Let´s speed this up a little!~" the blue hedgehog cheered and turned around to start running.

"Sonic! Wait up! There is a root right in front of your feet!" Silver tried to warn loudly but Sonic started already and got stuck on the root.

Wide eyes and a yelp in surprise was the result of the blue heroes' hasty decision.

"Woah!"

He tried to catch himself while wagging with his arms like crazy. It was no use however as he still fell forward. Silver reacted immediately, rushed over to him and caught him before the blue hedgehog made contact with the ground. Sonic, still having wide eyes, turned around to look at Silver who was holding him in his arms. Returning the gaze, the younger hedgehog felt a sweatdrop run down his head.

"For chaos sake, Sonic! Do you always have to be so hasty? We are right beside a cliff and the forest. You have to watch out before you start to run!" Silver explained as his once calm expression turned into a slightly annoyed one.

"Hehe... sorry… I will think about this next time" the blue hedgehog responded and folded his ears back just a bit.

Not realizing the position the both were in, they kept on looking at each other. That was until both of their ears perked up at an odd sound. A sound of something falling. Of something big falling.

"Do you hear that, Silv?"

"I sure do"

Helping Sonic back up to his feet, both hedgehog then looked around in confusion.

"What is this noise?" Sonic asked to himself while looking to find out what in the world that noise was.

The younger of the two shrugged before moving his eyes up to the sky over the sea. His yellow eyes widened.

"Uhh... Soooniiiic?" Silver managed to say after what felt like his heart skipping a beat in shock.

"What?" the blue hedgehog wanted to know and looked at the silver furred hedgehog in question.

Silver pointed towards the sky and gritted his teeth. With a raised eyebrow Sonic turned his head to look where his friend was pointing. The blue hedgehog widened his eyes just like his friend as he saw that it was Angel Island that was making that sound. And that could only mean one thing. But due that shock of seeing his red rivals home falling, his brain didn´t process the logical reason. Instead he questioned how this was even possible. Pretty much that was the actual meaning of what he said.

"What in the name of chaos?!" he shouted.

When the huge island fell into the ocean the ground started shaking very hard. Like an earthquake it overcome the cliff. From the strong vibration the edge started to break away. The hedgehogs' eyes widened and jumped away from the edge, what proved to be very difficult.

"Woah! Silver! Use your power to get us up in the air!" Sonic said while trying to not fall on his butt or face.

"I´m on it!" the silver hedgehog replied.

With his psychokinesis Silver lifted them both up in the air. When the earth stopped shaking after good one minute, Silver placed Sonic back on the ground and landed beside him. The blue hedgehog let out a sighed.

"Well... that was 'shaky', heheh...uh..." he said, dropping his ears.

"It was... indeed" Silver replied, dropping his ears as well.

They didn´t even noticed yet that a huge wave was heading towards the cliff. After some seconds their ears were twitching from the sound of the coming wave.

"Oh... what now?" Silver asked.

When they moved towards the noise, their ears dropped immediately at what was moving into their direction with high speed. Feeling one of his eyes twitch, Sonic found himself unable to react for a few second. On the other hand for Silver he was too much in shook at the sight of such a huge wave to do anything at first. As a matter of fact, this was the first time he saw a wave THIS huge.

"Oh fuuuuu-"

"AH! THAT´S A WAY TO HUGE WAVE FOR MY TASTE!" Sonic shouted and clinged on Silver for dear life instead of running away.

"WHAT THE HECK, SONIC?!" Silver shouted and looked at him in shock.

"DO SOMETHING, SILVER!"

"WHY ME?!"

"CAUSE I HATE WATER!" the blue on shouted and tightened his arms around the silver hedgehog.

"THAT´S NOT A REAL REASON, YOU KNOW!" Silver shouted back surprisingly loud despite Sonic almost cutting the air of for him.

"IS THIS THE RIGHT TIME TO ARGUE ABOUT THIS?!"

After the blue hedgehogs last comment, they looked at the wave. Sonic hugged Silver even more tightly in fear. Just a moment before the wave was breaking over them, the silver furred hedgehog put his free arm up in the air to create a psychic shield around them for protection. With pinned down ears Sonic looked around them, seeing nothing but water. In that moment he thanked god for Silver having that kind of power or else they would have gotten blown away from the waters merciless force.

"Uaaaa... too much water…" he said quietly to himself, almost in a whisper.

He didn´t even noticed that he was still hugging Silver. Sometime later, after the water got fully back, the silver one stopped using their lifesaving shield. The blue speedster slowly let go of Silver and lay a hand on his chest.

"For chaos sake... that was close" he sighed in relief.

"…You know, you could have just ran away" Silver said, looking at him with a sweatdrop.

"Hehe, I know... but when it comes to water, my legs don´t want to do what I want" Sonic explained, scratching his head.

"Ah…"

"Yup..."

Awkward silence? xD

"Hey... WAIT A SEC!"

Confusion took over the younger hedgehogs face at the sudden outburst of his friend.

"What?!"

"WHY ARE WE STILL STANDING HERE?! ANGEL ISLAND JUST FELL DOWN! WE HAVE TO GO OVER THERE! KNUCKLES!" Sonic shouted and looked over to Angel Island in worry.

Silver looked over to the island as well, then back at Sonic to nod in agreement.

"Understood"

Again he used his power to lift them up and flew together with Sonic over to the fallen island. Soon they reached the shrine. The blue hedgehog widened his eyes when he saw Knuckles and Shadow lying on the ground. Both of them still unconscious.

"Silver, over there!" he said, pointing towards them.

The silver hedgehog nodded and flew over. As soon as Sonic was on the ground, her ran up to Knuckles, kneeled down beside him and took his head in his arms.

"Knuckles, wake up!" the blue hedgehog demanded loudly just to get no reaction of his older rival.

Silver kneeled down beside Shadow, put a hand on his shoulder and shook him a little. The black hedgehog also gave no respond.

"What just happened here? They look really hurt. We need to help them!" the blue hedgehog stated worried while looking at the unconscious echidna.

"It doesn't really matter now what here happened. Where should we bring them?" Silver asked, trying to keep calm at the sight of his wounded friends.

"Let´s fly to Tails. He knows what to do!" the blue hedgehog explained.

"Alright!"

Silver lifted all of them up and flew straight towards the house of the young two tailed fox. At first Tails was extremely confused and asked what had happened. Sonic explained and thankfully Tails understood. The young fox brought them to two beds to treat their injuries. Meanwhile the other two hedgehogs were waiting outside. About an hour later Tails came out which drew the hedgehogs attention towards him.

"Knuckles is waking up~" the fox told them.

"Awsome!" Sonic cheered and went into the room, followed by Silver and Tails.

Inside, Knuckles slowly sat up, holding his head with a groan.

"God dammit in hell..." he said and looked up, confused by his surroundings. "Where... where am I?!"

Even though he had been in Tails house quite a number of times already, he was still uncertain where he suddenly was. Just a moment ago he was on Angel Island and now he was completely elsewhere. This sudden change of his surroundings alarmed the red male greatly and was about to jump on his feet if it wasn´t for a familiar voice that made him stop dead in his tracks.

"Don´t worry, Knux~ You are at Tails house" the familiar voice assured him.

The red echidna blinked and turned his head, to see the person the voice belongs to was no one else than Sonic the Hedgehog, followed by Tails and Silver. This calmed the stressed echidna and made him even relax. Well… relax as much as his hurting body would let him.

"Why did you bring me here?" he asked groaning a bit in pain though he tried to suppress it.

"Are you kidding me? You were seriously hurt. What happened up there? Did Eggman get the Master Emerald again because Angel Island fell?" the blue hedgehog asked worried.

That probably wasn´t the best way to confront the echidna with his newest problem. Reason enough since he didn´t even knew that until now.

"Wait, WHAT?!" he shouted while his expression turned into a stare of disbelieve.

A sudden outburst like that was pretty much the last thing Sonic expected from Knuckles now.

"Did you just say Angel Island fell?!" the red guardian questioned in a loud manner.

"Uhh, yeah? Didn´t you noticed that?"

"No!"

Sonic looked at Silver and Tails confused. Both shrugged since they had no idea what was going on either. It surprised them just as much that Knuckles seemed to have no idea what happened to his home. Then the blue hedgehog looked back at his red friend.

"We thought you were fighting him but lost"

"I didn´t! I didn´t even see Eggman!" Knuckles stated, making fists at the same time.

"How come?" Silver asked.

"Because of-" the red echidna started but couldn´t finish because of a groan that came from the other bed.

All eyes moved towards the person who made that sound. Shadow sat up and rubbed his head. Knuckles eye began to twitch as soon as he saw him. The black hedgehogs' ears perked up and lifted his head enough to see the others, but otherwise stayed silent. That was until his eyes meet the raging purple orbs of Knuckles.

"YOU!" the red echidna shouted and stood up.

"Woah! Easy there, Knuckles!" Sonic said worried but the red echidna didn´t give a damn.

"Because of you Eggman got my emerald again!" the guardian said mad.

"Wait? Because of him? Didn´t he help you?" the silver furred hedgehog asked.

Knuckles looked at the younger hedgehog. Like he wasn´t angry enough already. Would he react like that if Shadow helped him? Definitely NOT!

"Not. At. All! He came to my island because he was 'bored' and provoked a fight!" he said angrily and returned his gaze to Shadow. "If you hadn´t come Eggman wouldn´t have got my emerald again! It´s all your fault!"

"Yeah, because I could _smell_ that Eggman was there to attack again!" the black and red hedgehog growled.

"Oh, when I get my hands on you, you will regret ever meeting me!" Knuckles growled back.

"Okay! Both of you calm down!" Sonic said, getting between the two like he did the week before.

"I will NOT calm down! This hedgehog turns my life into a hell!" the red echidna shouted, glaring at his blue rival after shoving him away from himself. "If it wasn´t for him, Eggman wouldn´t have got my emerald!"

Slowly the black and red hedgehog stood up, having his eyes closed.

"Sure, because it is my fault that you are such a bad guardian, Echidna" Shadow said calmly, his eyes still being closed.

Tails, Sonic and Silver stared at him while Knuckles eye twitched and glared dangerously, almost deadly at him.

"EXCUSE ME?! HOW I SAID ALREADY! IT WAS YOUR FAULT THAT EGGMAN GOT MY EMERALD AGAIN!" the red echidna yelled at the black hedgehog.

Shadow opened his eyes and looked at the echidna who was standing right in front of him. That guy seriously looked like he was about to strangle Shadow to death. It actually gave Shadow a cold shiver but to his luck he had his emotions perfectly under control and stayed calm much to the echidnas bad temper. Seeing him staying calm like that pissed him off even more. For him this meant that Shadow wasn´t taking him serious at all.

"I didn´t say it wasn´t, because I know myself it was my fault for distracting you... However, what´s with the times before? They were not my fault, were they?" the hedgehog said matter of factly with his calm voice.

That stunned the red echidna a little. Part because he didn´t expected for Shadow to take the blame, part for the last thing he said.

"W-what?" he asked to make sure he didn´t hear wrong.

"You know exactly what I mean. For example last week. Eggman got your emerald although you had full health and so many times before as well. Or all the times Rouge got your emerald. She is for sure not as strong as you are, yet you couldn´t protect your emerald from being stolen from her. I am not trying to say that happens every time. Sometimes you are really able to protect that stupid rock but more often it happens that it is being stolen or destroyed. You sure are the worst guardian this world has ever seen. To be exact... you are not even worth to be called a guardian as bad as you 'guard' this thing" Shadow said in a piercing cold tone.

"Ouch..." Sonic and Silver said at the same time, which was not helping the echidna at all.

Knuckles widened his eyes and felt a burning sting in his chest. He took a step back and looked down on the ground. That was a shot right into the bulls eye. He never realized that until know but now that he heard it, he had to admit it was true, though he would never say that out loud. His pride made that impossible. Shadow crossed his arms and looked at him coldly. The reaction his hated opposite was giving, was answer enough for him to know that Knuckles knew exactly that he was right. However, there was no way Knuckles would ever admit that. Clenching his fists, he started to growl angrily.

"I will show you…" he said.

Shadow raised an eyebrow.

"I will show all of you that that is not true! I will get the Master Emerald back by myself and I´ll make sure that no one will ever steal it again!" he shouted at Shadow and glared at him.

"Tsk" was all Shadow made and looked away.

He couldn´t believe how stubborn this idiot was. Though he knew that he was right, he still pretended it to be not true! This echidna was hopeless. With a growl the red one turned away and wanted to take his leave, but was held back by Sonic.

"Knux, no! You are still hurt. Don´t go!"

But the red echidna pushed him out of his way and left. Sonic dropped his ears as he looked after his long-time rival. Then he gave Shadow a deadly glare and growled at him. One of the black and red hedgehogs' ears twitched at the sudden sound and turned his head to look at his blue rival.

"Was that necessary, Shadow?!"

"I was only telling the truth" he replied.

"It still was not necessary to say it Shadow!" Sonic gave angrily back before a sigh left his throat. "...we will go after him and help him!"

"Oh, hell no!" the black hedgehog said far more loudly than anything else he had said before.

"Oh, hell yes!" the blue hedgehog growled and managed to grab one of Shadows arms.

"Let go of me, Sonic!" the black hedgehog hissed and tried to get free.

However, Sonic ignored him and dragged him out of the house to follow the red echidna. Silver and Tails looked after them and couldn´t help but feel a sweatdrop run down their heads.

"Oh dear..." Silver stated.

"I agree" Tails replied and looked at him with dropped ears.

"Do you think they will ever get along again?" the silver furred hedgehog asked, looking back at the young fox.

"I don´t know... I don´t even know how this hate between Shadow and Knuckles started in the first place..." the two tailed fox sighed while rubbing his innocent blue eyes.

"Neither do I…"

For a few seconds the kept on looking where the other went.

"You, Silver?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you maybe follow them? I am sure they will get into trouble so they could need you" Tails said.

"Sure thing" the silver hedgehog replied and gave him a thump up together with a smile.

The young fox returned the smile. A few seconds later Silver started flying to follow the others. Tails looked after him and waved. And so Sonic, Silver, Shadow and Knuckles were going towards Eggmans base. The tension was back as Knuckles and Shadow were yet again forced to somewhat work together. Knuckles wouldn´t have much of a problem if it only were Sonic and Silver, but that they even dare to drag Shadow along was like they wanted him to lose his last nerve. At the same time Shadow tried to find a way to get away from there. He surely didn´t want to help. Especially not that stupid red echidna but the blue hedgehog still held him in his grip. His Chaos Emerald was also gone so he couldn´t just use Chaos Control to get away. Tails must have taken it from him when he treated his wounds. A feeling told him that this was going to be a long and annoying forced-on-him mission type of thing. Meanwhile in Dr. Eggmans base the human was working on his machine. Now that he had the emerald he could finally finish his newest creation. Orbot and Cubot were watching curiously. Eggman laughed evilly and carefully put the Master Emerald with a gripper arm into his machine. As soon as the emerald was in the machine, it started doing noises and working.

"Yes. Yes! It works! I am such a genius!" the doctor cheered for himself.

Orbot just shook his head while Cubot was clapping for the doctors success.

"Good job, Boss" Cubot said happily.

"Hehehe, I know!~" Eggman replied proudly.

"So... now that it is finished... will you tell us now what kind of machine this is?" Orbot asked and looked at Eggman.

"You will see soon enough, my dear robo-"

"Is it a donut machine?" Cubot interrupted him.

Eggman and Orbot stared at him in surprise the first few second. The red robot felt ashamed and hide his face in his hands.

"What?! No! What would I need a donut machine for?!" Eggman hissed at him feeling slightly insulted about the fact that Cubot thinks he would waste his intellect at something as simple as that.

"I don´t know. Maybe you felt like you want donuts" the yellow robot said.

The doctor sighed and rubbed the space between his eyes.

"Slowly I regret to ever build you, Cubot..." he admitted in frustration.

The yellow cube like robot tilted his head. What had he done wrong now? There was no time to thing as a few moments later the alarm of the doctors' base went up. Eggman and the two robots looked up in surprise.

"What the?" Eggman asked more calmly like he maybe should.

Orbot flew over to the monitors and clicked on a green button. The monitor switched on and the robot saw how the three hedgehogs and the echidna ran right towards the base.

"Uh… Boss? Sonic and his friends are on the way" Orbot said, looking towards Eggman.

To his surprise Eggman started grinning what caused him to tilt his head in question.

"That´s good! Now I can use my weapon sooner than I thought! Just let them in!" the doctor chuckled evilly.

"Okay" was all the red robot replied.

Only a few hundred meters away from the base the four stopped. They looked towards the huge building. Knuckles turned towards the others.

"Just to make that clear! I am going to fight Eggman! If one of you get in my way, you will have a problem!" he said.

"But Knux, you are still hurt. We just want to help" Sonic said.

"I didn´t asked for your help!" he hissed.

"If I had something to say here, I wouldn´t even be here, Echidna. But… maybe I can get another emerald from Eggman this way" the black hedgehog thought while crossing his arms, trying to find something positive in the situation he was forced to take part in.

"Just don´t get in my way!" Knuckles said and turned back towards their enemies' base.

"Alright, Knux" Sonic sighed in defeat.

There was no way he could make Knuckles change his opinion once he had something in mind. A few seconds later they started running again, preparing themselves to break through the metallic door and fight a bunch of robots. Shadow as the last one because he still didn´t really want to join this. Actually… he had the chance to leave now, but the thought of getting the chance for another Chaos Emerald was to tempting. Shortly before they were on the door, Sonic and Knuckles jumped towards it. Sonic using his spin dash and Knuckles using his infamous fists to punch right through it.

"Hehehe" Eggman chuckles as he watched them.

He pushed a button and the door opend. Knuckes and Sonic widened their eyes in surprise when the door suddenly opened in front of them.

"What the hell?" both yelled in a stunned manner.

The two of them fell on the hard ground and groaned. The doctor pushed another button and the ground right under Sonic and Knuckles opened. Their eyes went wide yet again and didn´t even have the chance to react before falling down helplessly.

"Daaaang iiit!" the blue hedgehog shouted as they fell down.

Shadow and Silver ran up to the hole and looked down.

"Sonic! Knuckles!" the silver furred hedgehog shouted only to get no respond.

The two remaining hedgehogs looked at each other and then jumped after them. At the same time Sonic and Knuckles just fell through a hole from the ceiling into a dark room. Knuckles hit the ground first and Sonic landed right on him.

"AGH!" Knuckles yelped out in pain.

Hearing that Sonic lifted himself to look down at his red furred friend.

"Sorry, Knuckles!" Sonic apologized while dropping his ears a little.

"Just get down!" the echidna groaned.

The blue hedgehog did how we was told. Knuckles lifted himself up and groaned in pain again. A few moments later the other two hedgehog came through the ceiling as well and landed beside them.

"Looks like Eggman knew we were coming" Silver said.

Just in this moment when the youngest of the four stated this, the lights went on to expose them to anything that would be in here.

"How right you are my fluffy little enemy" the doctor said grinning and stood on a huge machine.

The eyes of his enemies moved over to him as soon as his voice came up. Silver couldn´t suppress a pout.

"Hey! I´m not! I only look fluffy!" he growled quietly to himself.

Shadow, who heard that, looked at Silver from the corner of his eye and felt a sweatdrop. The doctor couldn´t help but chuckle. With narrowed his eyes Knuckles took notice of something that was shimmering on the inside of the machine. He took a closer look and saw that it was the object he came here for. The Master Emerald. Loud growls became hearable.

"Eggman! Give me back the emerald now or we have a little problem!" he hissed dangerously at the human.

"No, I don´t think I will" Eggman grinned at his red enemy in pure glee.

The echidna growled once more and ran towards the doctor, ready to beat him up. Eggman got a smirk and snipped with his fingers. A few big robots fell from the ceiling right in front of the attacking echidna. The red guardian widened his eyes and jumped back. Just in time, because one of the robots punched after him and hit the ground where he last stood on. Knuckles showed his fangs in rage.

"If I was you, I would rethink this again. You are not in the state to fight. Your battle with Shadow wasn´t something you can call harmless" the doctor said in amusement and chuckled.

"You watched us?" the black hedgehog asked.

"Yes~ It really was entertaining me, my dear hedgehog and I must thank you. You saved me a lot of time to deal with this stubborn echidna, Shadow" the doctor explained and laughed.

"..."

Cubot and Orbot were jumping up to Eggman to assist him in mocking them.

"Yeah, it was really a great show!" Cubot cheered.

"Cubot, shut up!" Eggman ordered but the robot didn´t stop.

Orbot watched them and laughed. At least… that is what the originally wanted to do. Seemed to have backfired. The four heroes watched as well and either of them felt somewhat weird.

"Am I the only one who can´t really take him serious when those two are with him?" the silver hedgehog asked.

"Nope, you´re not, Silv" Sonic replied.

When Eggman was finally able to shut both robots he looked back at his enemies.

"Um... where were we?" he asked, while a sweatdrop ran down his head.

"You just stopped mocking Shadow for his stupidity" Knuckles said and glared at Shadow but the black hedgehog ignored him.

"Oh right! Well then... Attack!" he ordered his fighting robots.

The robots obeyed to their creators command and attacked them right away. The hedgehogs and the echidna made themselves ready to fight back. Soon the battle started to become really serious. Silver and Sonic were working as a team while Shadow and Knuckles were fighting on their own. Parallel to them, Eggman sat into his machine and started it.

"Is it me or are this robots stronger than the others before?" Silver asked while throwing the robots at each other with his psychokinesis.

"That´s for sure because of the master emerald" the blue blur replied and didn´t notice that one of the giant robots came up to him from behind.

"Sonic! Watch out!" Silver shouted and throw a broken part of another robot at that one.

Sonic turned around and widened his eyes. When the robot got hit by the broken one, Sonic looked over to Silver and thumped up.

"Thanks, buddy!"

"No problem"

When a robot was about to attack Silver, Sonic used his homing attack. Silver smiled at him and thumped up. At the same the other two had some problems because they always got into each others way instead of working together. Both were fighting against a robot and slowly came closer to each other. When their backs made contact, they turned around to look at each other.

"Hey! Out of my way, hedgehog!" Knuckles growled.

"How about you get out of mine?!" Shadow growled back.

They didn´t notice that the robots were about to punch them. Silver looked over to them.

"Watch out you two!" he shouted over to them to give them a warning.

Shadow and Knuckles blinked and looked, only seeing two metallic claws punching after them. It was too late for them to react and both got hit against the hard metal wall. Both yelped out and fell on their knees. The doctor had to chuckle. Shadow looked up, having one eye closed while Knuckles groaned and slowly stood up.

"S-see? This wouldn´t h-happen if you would just get out of my w-way!" the red echidna hissed at the black hedgehog who gave him a glare.

"Don´t tell me what to do! If it went after me, I wouldn´t even be here! You can thank Sonic for dragging me along!" he snarled at the echidna.

"You still could just get out of my way!"

"Why don´t you get out of mine!?"

And they were staring to argue with each other in the middle of the battle. They stopped fighting against the robots and only dodged their attacks. Sonic just spin dashed a robot and then looked over to them. He honesty couldn´t believe what he saw.

"Heaven, that can´t be true! COULD YOU TWO PLEASE STOP AND FINALLY WORK TOGHETER AS A TEAM?!" he shouted over to them.

"Over my dead body!" both shouted back.

In frustrated Sonic rubbed his eyes at the stubbornness of his two rivals. Was their silly hate towards each other really more important than trying to win this fight? Hell! Coming here was Knuckles idea for Chili Dogs sake! At least he could be serious about this! He should stop caring about Shadow and focus on what his actual goal was. Sonic couldn´t understand him at this point. Sure it was him who dragged Shadow along but still!

"That just can´t be true..." he thought, not paying attention what figured to be a big mistake.

"Perfect, Sonic is distracted! Time to finish the show" the doctor thought.

Eggman gave a robot the command to grab Sonic. The silver furred ears perked up and looked to the distracted one.

"Sonic!" he shouted.

The blue one ears twitched and turned around, widening his eyes.

"AH!" was all Sonic could muster to come up with as the big robot grabbed him.

He tried to get free but the robot was stronger. He held him up.

"Let me down you reeking recycling product!" he hissed at the robot, sadly in vain.

"Wait up, Sonic! I´m coming!" Silver shouted up to him.

He was about to run to help his blue friend but stopped when he heard the sound of a machine. From his eye corners he could see that Eggman was aiming his machine on Sonic. The silver furred hedgehog gasped and looked over to Sonic who didn´t seem to notice Eggmans doing. Using his powers Silver lifted up a broken robot. Eggman took notice of that.

"Oh no, you don´t! E-600!" the doctor shouted.

The robot who was holding Sonic looked towards Silver, held up his arm and shot his claw towards the hedgehog. Sonic watched wide eyed.

"Silver!"

The youngest of the hedgehog just throw the broken robot towards Eggmans machine, before looking into the direction his name was shouted, only to see how the huge metallic claw came up to him with immense speed which left no time for him to react anymore. The claw managed to hit him and pinned him against the wall. A pained yell filled the air. Silver was pinned tightly at the wall unable to use even one muscle. Eyes were shut tight as well. To the doctors misfortune the broken robot flew straight towards him and there was no way he could stop it.

"Ah, dammit!" he shouted, waggling with his arms like crazy.

Obviously the broken robot hit Eggmans machine and caused it to move quite much after the impact. The doctor screamed a little child and tried to hold onto something so that he won´t fly out of the cockpit. The machine changed its direction and was now pointing right towards the fighting hedgehog and echidna. The sudden stop caused the egg shaped man to fly against the trigger accidently. A charging sound then came up and soon enough a laser shot right towards Shadow and Knuckles.

"Oh-oh" Eggman said when he looked up.

The blue hedgehog, who was still grabbed by the robot, widened his eyes in horror and looked towards his rivals.

"Shadow! Knuckles! Watch out!" he shouted over to them while trying to get free.

The two looked up and were extremely confused when the robots backed away from them. Then they looked towards Eggman and widened their eyes as the laser moved up to them.

"UaaaaaaAAAHHH!" they yelled, trying to get away, but it was too late.

The laser was too close for them to even have the chance to get away and hit them with a loud bang.

"NOO!" the blue hedgehog shouted not wanting to believe what he saw.

Silver, who was still pinned on the wall, watched in horror himself, not wanting to believe that either. As the smoke slowly faded away Shadow and Knuckles came to the fore again. But that wasn´t anything else than a relief. Both steamed. Sonic and Silver starred at them. Knuckles was lying on the ground, his eyes only showing the white while Shadow was still standing on his feet, but was looking into nothingness. His pupils and iris´ were nothing but blurry. Slowly he fell on his knees before breaking down on his stomach. The last thing he heard was someone shouting his and Knuckles name before the white light he saw faded into pitch black.

To be continued...


	3. Chapter 3

Lost Memories Chap 3

"Ugh..." made the black hedgehog as he slowly came back to consciousness.

Slowly he opened his eyes. He saw bright lights on the ceiling. He turned his head to see that he was in some kind hospital room. Holding his head, the dark furred hedgehog slowly sat up. He flinched because his head ached pretty badly. He looked down at the white bed sheets and panted.

"Damn it..." he said and looked up slowly.

He still held his head as he looked around.

"What happened and... where am I..?" he asked himself.

"I see you´re awaken" suddenly a voice said.

One of Shadows ears twitched. He turned his head to look to whom this voice belongs. He saw a man shaped like an egg standing at the door looking at him. He blinked and tilted his head.

"What the...?"

The man went up to him.

"I´m glad to see that you finally woke up, Shadow" he said with a relieved smile.

Shadow looked at him confused.

"What´s wrong?" the man asked.

"Well… Excuse me but... who in the world are you? And... Who is Shadow?" the black and red streaked hedgehog asked, looking at him really confused.

He got even more confused when the man suddenly looked all shocked.

"What? Does that mean you don´t recognise me?" he asked.

"Well... no.." the black hedgehog answered.

"..."

The human just looked at Shadow. The hedgehog looked back, folding one of his ears back. This staring made him really uncomfortable.

"Oh no... that´s not good..." the human said then.

"Huh?"

"You have l-" the human began but couldn´t finish because two robots came through the door.

"Are they awaken yet?!" the yellow robot asked hasty.

The human facepalmed.

"Cubot, really! Don´t be so hasty all the time!" the red robot then said.

"I´m sorry, Orbot. I am just so curious. You know that!" the robot named Cubot said.

Shadow watched them, still not knowing what the heck is going on. He looked at the human again who seemed really annoyed.

"Grrrr! SILENCE!" the doctor yelled as the two robots didn´t wanted to be quiet.

The robots were quiet immediately. Shadow pinned his ears back when the human yelled and holds his head.

"Ow..."

The human looked at Shadow.

"Oh, I´m sorry, Shadow" he apologized.

The black hedgehog had one eye closed and gritted his teeth.

"Why does he keep on calling me Shadow..? Is... Is that my name..?" the hedgehog thought.

"Since when is so caring?" Cubot asked Orbot.

Just when Orbot shrugged the doctor gave them a glare. Both were silent once again. The doc sighed and looked back at Shadow. The hedgehog looked back at him and raised an eyebrow. Eggman grabbed a chair and sat down beside the hedgehogs' bed. The black one blinked and tilted his head.

"I guess I need to explain everything to you... you have lost your memories since you don´t recognise me..." the man said.

"I already noted... that I can´t remember anything..." the black hedgehog said.

"I see, well... then let me start" Eggman said.

All Shadow did was to nod. Just when Eggman wanted to, they heard a groan coming from another bed. Shadow and Eggman looked, seeing that the red echidna also finally woke up as well. He sat up and held his head, groaning once again.

"What the heck... where the hell am I?" he asked.

The black hedgehog narrowed his eyes.

"..."

"Ahh, Knuckles. You are also finally up!" Eggman said happily.

The red creature looked at him and raises an eyebrow. He looked behind him and back at Eggman.

"Are you talking with me?" the echidna asked and pointed to himself.

The doctors' happy face faded and slammed his hand on his face.

"Oh no… not you too..." he said.

"Huh?"

"Damn you, Sonic!" the doctor said.

"Sonic? Who is Sonic? But most of all… who are you? Who are you all?" the red echidna asked.

"I began to wonder this myself" Shadow said while looking to Knuckles.

The echidna returned the gaze and seemed pretty confused.

"Okay... then let me finally explain. It´s time anyway" the doctor said

Knuckles and Shadow looked at him and waited. They had no clue what was going on so they were a bit impatient.

"Okay. Let me first introduce myself. I am Doctor Ivo Robotnik but the world knows me as " the doctor began.

"Obvious why" the echidna and hedgehog said at the same time as they looked at Eggman from head to toe.

"Yeah... whatever… Anyways, I am the worlds' greatest super genius!" the doctor said with a big grin and laughed evilly.

Shadow and Knuckles both felt a sweattrop when they looked at the human. Then the two looked at each other.

"What do you think?" the red echidna asked.

"He seems like a moron" the black hedgehog answered.

This made the doctor fall on his back (you know... how that happens in Animes a lot xD). Orbot and Cublot laughed at that. He stood up again.

"Anyways... now let me tell you who you are. You are called Shadow the Hedgehog" the doctor began and looked at the black hedgehog. "And your name is Knuckles the Echidna" he finished and looked towards the red one.

He told them a lot more except that they were actually enemies. He told them what they like, what the dislike and stuff like that. Sometime between his explaining Knuckles and Shadow decided to stand up but they were still listening. Eggman said this all really credible but both where a bit sceptical. Sometime later the doctor was finished.

"Yeah, that´s it I guess" Eggman said.

Knuckles and Shadow looked at him. The black hedgehog hold his chin.

"...okay" he began. "Let me get this straight"

Eggman, Knuckles and even the two robots, who were still there, looked at Shadow.

"You told us a lot about ourselves and even about yourself, but... my question is... what have we two to do you with you?" he asked and raised an eyebrow.

"That´s kind of true" Knuckles said and crossed his arms.

Orbot and Cubot looked at their creator.

"Ah, thank you for reminding me. I almost forget that" he said and snipped his fingers.

"Then go on" Knuckles said a bit annoyed.

"Okay, okay. Jeeeez... Well you see... You two are actually working for me" the doctor said.

"We do?" the red echidna asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah. Together we are an evil team. Trying to destroy a hedgehog called Sonic and planning to rule the world" Eggman told them.

Shadow and Knuckles widened their eyes in shock.

"An... an evil team?!" both said at the same time.

"I know... it´s kinda shocking" the doctor said.

"Not kinda! It is shocking!" Knuckles hissed.

"It this some kind of stupid joke?!" Shadow hissed as well.

"Hey, you two. Calm down. I can explain it" Eggman said, hoping they will.

"Then go on or I will-" the black and red streaked hedgehog began.

He couldn´t finish because he suddenly felt a strong pain in his stomach. He held it and fell almost on his knees. The red echidna reacted fast and caught him.

"Hey, are you alright?" he asked and looked at Shadow.

The hedgehog had his eyes shut tight and groaned in pain. The echidna looked at a bed.

"Umm… come on. Sit down there" he said and led him towards the bed.

Eggman helped him and together they made Shadow sit on the bed. The hedgehog panted a bit and looked at his body. He just noticed that he had bandages all over it. He looked at the red echidna who also had bandages all over his body. He looked at his own again and carefully placed a hand on his stomach. The echidna, who were also already pretty exhausted, sat also on the bed and panted a bit.

"What... what did just happen... that we are in this condition...?" the black hedgehog asked.

"I´m sorry that you are like this..." Eggman said, while sitting down on a chair he just grabbed.

The hedgehog and the echidna looked at him.

"Doc... how did this happen... please tell us..." the red echidna said and looked at him.

The doctor looked at them for a few seconds.

"Alright... I will tell you... do you wanna hear the whole story, I mean how you two ended up working with me and stuff or just how this happened?" he asked.

Shadow and Knuckles looked at each other. They nodded and looked back at Eggman.

"The whole story" they said at the same time.

Eggman nodded and leaned back.

"Alright... it happend already some time ago. On this day... another villain was attacking the city you were living in. Sonic, the hedgehog, I mentioned before, tried to stop him. He is the 'hero' and you need to know... You two where actually friends with this certain hedgehog so you decided to help him. You followed him to the forest nearby. Sonic was actually grateful that you helped him. But then something happened that was really unexpected... it was a really hot day, it didn´t rain for who knows how long. So… the ground was really dry. I don´t know how it happened but... nearby the place you battled the forest caught on fire and the wind came into your direction. The fire came near really fast but you didn´t notice until the alarm of the city went off. You were in the middle of the battle when the alarm went off. Almost seconds after that the smoke reached you already" Eggman told them.

Knuckles and Shadow listened. They looked at each other when Eggman stopped talking.

"What happened then?" Shadow asked and looked back at Eggman.

"After the fire was fought down I decided to take a look. It could have been that Sonic was captured and I just wanted to look if I could find him. Uh… well whatever. After I looked around for about an hour and couldn´t find anything I had enough. I wanted to get back into my base when I suddenly heard groans of pain. I looked around and tried to find out where the noises were coming from. After some minutes I spotted something weird looking, pinned down under a burned tree. I destroyed the tree with one of my weapons. I kneeled down and blinked in surprise and shock when it was you two who were lying there. You were badly injured. At first I hesitated because I was shocked. I would have never thought to find you there... with**out** Sonic. A few seconds later I picked you two up and called my so called Egg-Mobil. When it arrived I jumped in with you two and flew back to my base. I looked at you two while flying back. You looked really bad. I needed to speed up. When we arrived at my base I brought you to my infirmary immediately to take care of your wounds and burnings. I have no idea how I managed to do it but I saved your lives. But... you were unconscious for a few days. When you woke up you were really surprised to see me. I didn´t blame you for this, we were enemies back then..."

* "Flashback" (**!Writer/Artist alert!: **_Just to say it. This is just a made up story from Eggy. So please don´t be to confused about this whole crap I write here xDD sorry for interrupting, hope you enjoy the story so far~ See you OwO/ _)*

The black hedgehog and the red echidna stood side by side facing the man. They thought Eggman would harm them.

"Calm down you two!" Eggman said.

"No! Who knows what you are up to again!" Knuckles said his fists in front of his face, ready to fight Eggman if he had to.

"I´m up to nothing right now!"

"We cannot trust you!" Shadow snarled, having the same position like the red echidna.

"If I was you, I would trust me!" the man hissed back.

"And why in the world should we do that, Eggface?!" Knuckles yelled.

"Because I actually saved your butts! That´s why!" the doctor yelled back.

Shadow and Knuckles blinked in confusion.

"You... you what?" the black and red streaked hedgehog asked, putting his fists down and looking at the human.

"Don´t you remember that fire almost 2 weeks ago? I found you two half dead!" the doctor yelled.

"W-what?" Knuckles asked, starring at his enemy.

"Why else would you expect to wake up in my base?! If it wasn´t for me you two would be dead by now!" the human growled.

Shadow and Knuckles just looked at him. They were out of words and let their guard down slowly.

"Why did you... Why did you save us?! We are enemies, aren´t we?!" Shadow asked loudly wanting him to answer.

"Yeah and? Sonic wasn't there to save you, now was he?!"

" . . . "

"Actually I thought you would be more grateful but nooooo... Instead of that I almost get attacked by you! You know, I also could have let you just die there! But I was so nice and saved you, in contrast to Sonic who is actually your 'friend'. He just let you lie there, not giving anything! In fact, I saw him just yesterday, running around and he did not look like he was in worry!" Eggman said coldly, giving them glares.

Shadow dropped his ears and looked down. Knuckles looked down as well. Eggman growled.

"You know what?! Just leave BUT if this happens again, don´t even think I would come to help you when Saaaaawwwwnik doesn't!" the doctor yelled.

And with that, he turned around and left them in the room. Shadow and Knuckles looked after him and then at each other.

"He... he is right... Sonic just let us lie there, though... he knew we were still in the fire.." Knuckles said.

Shadow closed his eyes and made a fist.

"This god... damn... bastard! He will so pay for this!" the black hedgehog growled and punched the wall.

Knuckles also made a fist.

"How could he just leave us there...? We tried to help him and this is how he thanks us?!" the red echidna growled and looked to the ground, gritting his teeth.

Shadow looked at him and lay a hand on his shoulder. The red echidna looked at the hedgehog.

"..."

"Don´t worry, Knuckles... Sonic is going to pay dearly for this" he said while looking at the echidna.

"I guess that means you have the same thought like me" Knuckles said.

The black hedgehog nodded. Meanwhile Eggman, who was already in his office, was quietly swearing to himself. He looked out of the window and growled.

"Those little rats!" he growled "I should have left them th-"

Eggman stopped as her heard the door. He turned around. He narrowed his eyes as he saw Knuckles and Shadow standing there.

"Didn´t I tell you to leave!?" he growled at them.

They just looked at him.

"What the heck do you want!" he hissed.

His angry face soon turned into a really surprised one. He blinked as he saw how Shadow and Knuckles kneeled in front of him.

"What the? What are you two doing?"

"We...we want to work for you, Doctor…" Knuckles said, looking up.

This made the doctor blink in confusion. He expected everything but that.

"What?"

"You were right. We should have been more grateful. We owe you our lives... also... we want to make Sonic pay for just leaving us there. To just let us almost die!" Shadow said, looking up at Eggman as well.

"Huh?"

"We want to help you to defeat him. Once and for all!" they said at the same time.

Eggman just looked at them. He wasn´t sure if this was a trick or not but when he looked into their eyes, seeing that fire that burnt in them, wanting revenge so bad, he knew it wasn´t a trick. He started grinning and to chuckle evilly.

"Well... in this case I will gladly let you help me. Together we shall show this little pest where his place is!" the doctor grinned and walked up to them.

The other two stood up again and looked at the human. When Eggman stood in front of them, he held his hand out to him. Shadow looked first at the doctors hand and then at his face. The mad scientist grinned.

"Hand on it, Shadow. For good working together~" he smirked.

Shadow hesitated at first and looked at Knuckles. The red echidna had a serious face and nodded. The black and red streaked hedgehog nodded as well and looked back at Eggman. He held his hand out to his former enemy and shook his hand. Eggman chuckled and let go of Shadows hand. He walked behind them and lay his hands on their shoulders.

"This will become a really great partnership my dear little fur balls~" the doctor said and grinned at them.

Knuckles and Shadow looked at him serious than ever and simply nodded.

*"Flashback" end*

"And this is practically how you two ended up working for me" the human said, having his arms crossed.

" . . . "

Shadow and Knuckles looked at each other.

"This hedgehog sure has put some dirt on, hasn´t he?" the black and red hedgehog said.

"Indeed he has... grr... I have no clue who he is but hearing this makes me wanna kill him right away!" the echidna growled and made a fist.

"I am with you there" the black hedgehog replied and crossed his arms.

"Now, now, don´t waste your energy with that. First you have to get back at full health then you can go after this stubborn hedgehog" Eggman said.

"What reminds me... how did we end up like this now?" Shadow asked and looked at his body again.

The echidna looked first at Shadows body, then at his own and then to Eggman. He sighed. The human tilted his head a bit and rubbed the back of it.

"Ah right. I said I am going to tell you this as well, right?"

Knuckles and Shadow nodded and gave him all their attention.

"Ohh... well... it happened just a few days ago…"

*another "flashback"*

It was a pretty calm day. It was a bit cloudy but that didn´t bother them at all. It was in Eggmans old base. The human was working in his lab with Orbot and Cubot as company. He was working on his latest creation. Cubot obviously didn´t get what it should be and asked if it is an oversized coffee machine. Of course Eggman smacked Cubots metallic head, what wasn´t a good idea because his hand ached like hell after that and jumped through the lap while shaking his hand.

"Owowowow!" he yelled.

Orbot stayed in the background and just watched everything. He couldn´t help but shake his head. He couldn´t believe that a man with an IQ of 300 can be such a kid and that his buddy is such a moron. All of sudden the bases alarm went off.

"Dang it! What now?!" Eggman snarled, rubbing his still aching hand.

Orbot flew over to a monitor and looked what was going on.

"Boss, Sonic is on his way" he said.

"WHAT?! Why?! Why is he- ARGH! Dammit!" the doctor yelled and stormed out of the lab.

Orbot and Cubot were left in the lab. They looked at each other. All Orbot did was to shrug.

"SHADOW! KNUCKLES!" Eggman yelled while he made his way up to their room.

He smashed the door open and wanted to say something but stopped immediately when he saw what Shadow and Knuckles were doing. The black hedgehog lay on the bed, had Knuckles sit on his stomach and had his hands on the red echidnas' hips. Both stared at the tall human and blushed god damn madly. The doctor just stared back.

" . . . "

"THIS IS NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE, I SWEAR!" Knuckles yelled, shaking his arms like crazy and blushing really hard.

Shadow first looked at Knuckles and then at Eggman, grinning embarrassed. All Eggman did was standing in the door and looked at them, but all of sudden he snarled at them.

"Oh, cut it out you two! Now is not the time for a making out session! Sonic is on his way!" he snarled at them.

"What?!" both asked loudly at the same time, looking at Eggman.

"Yes! The alarm went off! He is coming straight towards the base!"

Shadow and Knuckles looked at each other and their gazes just became really serious. Knuckles got off of Shadow, standing up. The black hedgehog stood up right after him.

"We´re coming! And this time we are gonna crush his skull!" Knuckles said, cracking his oh so famous knuckles.

"There is no way we let him escape from his fate again!" Shadow added.

Both went past Eggman and straight towards the entrance of the base. Eggman followed them quietly and with a lot of space between them. A few minutes later, Sonic came through the door while using his spin dash. He stood in the middle of the huge entrance hall and looked around.

"Come out! I know you are here!" the hedgehog shouted.

"Oh, look who there is~"

Sonic blinked and turned around. He looked up and saw that Shadow stood on a huge bar of steal.

"It´s the blue moron" the black hedgehog finished.

"Shadow..." Sonic thought.

The black hedgehog jumped down and glared at the other hedgehog. Sonic got into a defensive pose, just to be sure. He gasped a little when Knuckles landed behind him. He turned his head to look at the red echidna.

"Knuckles..." he thought again.

Sonic looked back at Shadow when he started to speak.

"Why are you here, Sonic? Eggman didn´t even do something... yet" the black and red hedgehog said, glaring at the blue blur.

"I´m not here for Eggman but for you two, in order to speak with you" he explained, alternately looking back and forth between Shadow and Knuckles, while the two were going a slow circle around him.

"Speaking with us? Are you kidding? What do **we** have to talk?!" the red echidna snarled at him.

"You know exactly what we have to talk!" Sonic said.

"If you mean what happened a now pretty long time ago, forget it! We are done with that and we are also done with you!" the black hedgehog growled at him.

"I thought you were fine by yourselves!" the speedster said.

"As if! You knew we were still in the fire yet you didn´t even bother to look after us! We almost died!" Shadow snarled back.

"But I-" Sonic began but Knuckles cut him off.

"ENOUGH! It´s your own fault, Sonic! Now you have to live with that! We are on Eggmans side now and we will do everything what is necessary to take you down!" the red echidna yelled at him.

The blue hedgehog pinned his ears back and gritted his teeth. Shadow and Knuckles stood both in front of him now.

"And now… prepare to be defeated!" both said at the same time.

They attacked Sonic almost at the same time, but the blue blur dodges and jumped up. Shadow pushed himself up and jumped right after him. He grabbed his ankle and threw him back down. At the ground the red echidna was already waiting and punched really hard after Sonic as soon as the blue hedgehog was in range. Sonic yelled out in pain and hit the next wall with a loud and painful sound. No wonder, it was metal after all. After landing on his knees he began to pant badly. He looked up and over to the other two. They stood next to each other and looked at him with nothing but blank hate. Shadow prepared for another attack.

"Wait up! I don´t want to fight with you guys!" the blue hedgehog said, trying to stop the fight before it got serious.

But his trying was for nothing. Shadow jumped towards him, ready to beat the living crap out of him.

"Too late Sonic! You started this fight after you left us in the woods!" Shadow shouted and wanted to punch him.

Sonic narrowed his eyes and jumped out of the way, making Shadow hit nothing but the wall. The black hedgehog yelped out because it hurt to punch the metal wall. As the blue hedgehog landed the red echidna was already rushing up to him and punched after him. Sonic on the other hand dodged again while jumping up. He glared at the other two.

"Fine. You don´t want to talk like adults? Then I have no other choice!" he said and began to spin.

Using his spin dash Sonic dashed right towards Knuckles. The red echidna looked at Sonic and started grinning. Just when the blue hedgehog was about to attack him, Shadow came from the side and kicked the blue hedgehog away. Sonic yelped out again and hit the ground hard. The red echidna rushed right after Sonic, already ready to punch him. The blue hedgehog got up again and tried to jump away once more. But this time Knuckles didn´t fell for it. He grabbed Sonics leg and threw him against the floor. The blue hedgehog shut his eyes tight. The echidna smirked evilly and wanted to finish him right away. But Sonic won´t make it easy for them. He opened his eyes and smirked at Knuckles. Confused by the smirk the hedgehog gave him he let himself get distracted. The blue hedgehog took this chance and kicked Knuckles off him, jumping on his feet again. The red echidna hit the ground and groaned. The blue hedgehog started spinning right where he stood and started to charge himself. The black hedgehog narrowed his eyes and ran towards Sonic. He jumped up and started to spin dash himself right towards the charging hedgehog. Then Sonic started spinning towards Knuckles but half the way he collided with Shadow who was jumping right into his way. They spinned against each other not moving from where they were. They were equally strong. But for that short moment Sonic actually forgot that Shadow wasn´t his only opponent. But when he realized it, it was already too late. Knuckles just jumped over Shadow and kicked the blue hedgehog away like a football. Shadow rushed right after him and hit Sonic directly in the stomach. The blue hedgehog yelped out in pain as he got pushed back more and more. If he didn´t get an idea soon, this fight will be over. He tried to stop Shadow from pushing him back further but failed at trying. Right when he thought it couldn´t get worse, he was proven wrong. Knuckles just came from the side and with one hard punch into the face Sonic was sent away. Knuckles jumped right after him. He grabbed the blue one and smashes him against the next wall, pinning him against it really rough. He chuckled at Sonics weak look. The blue blur hold onto the red ones arm, panted really bad and had his eyes closed. The red echidna couldn´t help but grin.

"Oh, how pathetic you look, Sonic. It really pleases my eyes~" he said with a grin.

Shadow, who stood in the background, had his arms crossed and grinned just as evilly as his teammate. The blue hedgehog forced himself to open one eye to look at Knuckles. Blood dropped out of his mouth. He had to think about what to do fast.

"Finish him already, Knuckles. As much as I enjoy seeing him like this, it would be better to get this over with fast. The faster, the better" Shadow said, still having his arms crossed and going up to them.

"Yeah, yeah~ Don´t rush me. It´s not like he could do much right now, right?" the echidna said, looking at Shadow.

All the black hedgehog did, was to shrug. The blue hedgehog looked up and gritted his teeth. He was not going to give up this easily. He focused all his left strength into this one attack and hoped it will succeed. He opened his other eyes as well and glared at the redhead. The black hedgehog narrowed his eyes and wanted to warn Knuckles but he was just a little too late. Sonic punched Knuckles arm away, tackled him and immediately used spin dash just like Shadow did on him before. This caught Knuckles off guard and he had no chance to fight back. Shadow, who stood right behind him, had no time to react either and also got hit. Sonic pushed them both across the whole hall. Within seconds he reached the wall on the other side of the hall. He hit both against it. He still spin dashed Knuckles into the stomach. Shadow on the other hand was stuck between Knuckles and the hard metallic wall. Both yelled out in pain. Even though Sonic was really exhausted already he didn´t stop and his spinning didn´t lose speed.

"You really thought you could defeat me this easily? Well, **you have been wrong!**" he shouted and just raised up his speed.

Slowly the wall began to get pushed in because of Sonics strong attack. Really slowly the wall became cracks and with one raising of Sonics spinning they broke through the wall, flying into a completely other room. Sonic landed not really gently between a lots of cables. Shadow and Knuckles however crashed through a lot glass cylinder with weird liquid in them. The liquid was all over the floor. The blue hedgehog lifted himself up to go on his knees and held his head.

"Ugh... perhaps... that was a bit too much..." he said while rubbing his head.

As soon as he saw the liquid he blinked.

"What the heck is that..? Ugh... it kinda reeks..." Sonic said and held his nose. "Hm?"

Something then caught his attention. A shard with a warning on it. He took it and read.

"Warning... Highly explosive..." he read. "What the…"

He was cut off when he heard loud noises coming from the other side of the room. Shadow and Knuckles came out of broken computer parts and other scrap and growled furious at their blue enemy. Sonic looked at them and gritted his teeth.

"Now we have enough of you, Sonic!" the red echidna yelled.

Both, Knuckles and Shadow, were covered in this weird liquid, but that didn´t really bother them… yet. The echidna just wanted to attack again but he was held back by the black and red hedgehog.

"Wait a second... do you hear that?" he asked.

"Wha..?"

All three of them looked around until Shadows eyes landed on a pretty big broken cable. Sparks came out of it. Sonics eyes also landed on it and right in this moment something in his brain made click. He widened his eyes just like Shadow and Knuckles.

"WE NEED TO GET OUTTA HERE IMMEDIATELY!" the black hedgehog then shouted and grabbed Knuckles by the arm.

Sonic however stood up, jumped through the hole in the wall and ran out of the base as fast as he could. That was all what Shadow and Knuckles saw before running into the other direction through a broken door. Just a few seconds later the room, they just left, exploded. The impact of this explosion was enormous. The ground was shaking like crazy. It made it really hard to run. Also, the shock wave was faster than them and soon their bodies were exposed to extreme heat. And the fact that right behind them more of the base exploded made it not better for them. To their luck they made it out of the base just a few moments later thanks to them being able to run really fast. They ran to a safe distance as good as they could. Their bodies were covered in burns from the heat and also other wound from their fight with Sonic. It was really hard for them to keep on running. They were too exhausted to continue and soon collapsed on the ground. Eggman, who made it out of the base in time because he saw everything and kinda expected that this would happen, flew towards them in his Egg-Mobil. He saw them running out of the base. He jumped out of his machine and ran towards them, kneeling down as soon as he reached them. Cubot and Orbot were still in the Egg-Mobil and looked out.

"Oh my god, Shadow, Knuckles, can you hear me?!" he said loud as he held the black hedgehog and the red echidna in his arms.

Both made some weak noises of pain and had their eyes shut tight. Eggman gritted his teeth.

"Orbot! Cubot! We need to get them outta here!" he shouted over to the two robots.

They flew over to him and helped him to carry them over to the Egg-Mobil. Just when they ran over to the machine, another explosion happened behind them. looked back and saw that huge metal parts of the base flew in every kind of direction. They hopped into the machine and flew away as fast as they were able to. Eggman looked at the two injured guys.

"Don´t worry. I will save you two! I did it before! Just hold on!" he said.

Just after he finished the last sentence Knuckles and Shadow lost their consciousness for good.

*"flashback" end*

"Yep, and this is how you ended up like this" Eggman said with crossed arms. "Kinda shocking huh?"

He looked at them. Knuckles and Shadow were staring at him with an open mouth. What he didn´t know yet, was that after some point they kind of stopped listening. The doctor raises an eyebrow.

"Did I really told the whole story this bad? I thought I did good..." he said rubbing the back of his head.

"I think you did great, Doc!" Cubot cheered.

A few minutes Shadow and Knuckle kept on staring on Eggman. This made the human only sweatdrop and the robots looking at each other. Shadow then broke the silence.

"O..kay.. I. Think I...Got Everything... It... All makes sense... But. I… Still have one single question left" he said looking at the human.

"And that would be?" the doctor asked.

"Why... did he *pointing with his thumb to Knuckles* sit on my stomach while I... had my hands… on his hips..?" he asked slowly, still staring at the way taller human.

Knuckles had the same shocked expression as Shadow had since the point mentioned it.

"Oh... did I forget to mention that you two are actually a couple?" Eggman said, scratching his head.

There were a few second of complete silence.

"WE ARE WHAT?!" Shadow and Knuckles shouted at the same time.

"I guess I did..."

"Wha?! No! Nonononono! There is NO WAY I am in a relationship with him!" Shadow shouted still having a damn shocked expression. "I don´t even know him!"

"The same applies to me!" Knuckles added having the same face as the hedgehog.

"Well… actually... you do know each other. More than you think. You... just can´t… remember..." the doctor said.

The hedgehog and the echidna then looked at each other, not really wanting to believe that.

"I´m… sorry for that guys. I just thought. It´s better to tell you because... when you get your memories back you will see anyway that it is true" Eggman said and lay his hands on their shoulders.

They looked at him for just a few seconds and then looked away. This made Eggman sigh.

"Well… anyway. It´s getting late and you two still need a lot of rest. Let me bring you two to your room" Eggman said and went to the door, followed by his robots.

Shadow and Knuckles got off the sickbed and followed him as well. Their bodies still hurt but it wasn´t as bad anymore as when they first woke up. Eggman still made sure he wasn´t going too fast for them. After going through a lot of hallways they finally reached the door to Knuckles and Shadows room. The human opened the door and let them go inside. They went past him into the room and looked around.

"So... this is your room" Eggman said and stood behind them.

The room wasn´t this big but it also wasn´t too small either. It had a wooden floor. There also were a few furniture just as a few shelves, a desk, lamps of course, a wardrobe and... well...

"There is only one bed" Knuckles pointed out.

"Yeah... I know… you have to share it" Eggman said feeling a sweatdrop.

"We have to what?!" Knuckles and Shadow said, turning around to look at the human.

"I´m sorry! I didn´t expected for you to lose your memories so I didn´t put another bed in here!" Eggman apologized.

"... Despite the fact I actually wanted Sonic and not you two! But I still gonna use this to my advantage!" the human thought.

"And you don´t have another room or another bed or something?" Knuckles asked hoping he had.

"Sadly no" he replied.

"You got to be kidding, right?" Shadow said looking at him not really want to believe that he really didn´t.

"Sadly no again" he replied.

They looked over to the bed.

"Please someone tell me this is a nightmare..." the dark hedgehog said.

"I hope so too…" Knuckles replied.

"It´s not the end of the world, guys. Just try to get some rest. You will need it. When you feel better we are going to start with your training" the doctor said, patting their backs.

"Training? What do you mean with training?" Knuckles asked and looked up to Eggman.

"You will see what I mean when you feel better~" Eggman said and gave them a smile.

The two looked at each other again.

"Well then... good night, guys" he said, slowly going towards the door.

The hedgehog and the echidna looked after him as he slowly closed the door and left the two alone. After he closed the door he leaned towards the doorframe and let out a deep sigh. Orbot and Cubot, who were sitting on the floor about a meter away from him, tilted curiously their heads. Then the human started grinning and made his way down the hallway, followed by the two robots. Eggman chuckled evilly to himself.

"An awesome show you did there, Boss" Orbot praised his creator.

"Why thank you, my dear robot~" Eggman said, completely full of himself.

"You did it so convincingly, I almost believed it myself!" Cubot cheered.

"Well~ I am indeed a good actor~ Hehe"

"Yes, Doctor. You are. You indeed are. But there is still something that confuses me…" Orbot said and holds his 'chin' while flying beside Eggman.

"That would be?"

"Well... about this whole story you told them. It is all a lie and stuff and we even companied you when you wrote it down on paper but... why the heck did you tell them that they are a couple?" the red robot asked pretty confused about that one.

"Well... actually... that was a last minute thought and... Even I can have my fun, can´t I?" Eggman said glaring at the robot, but continued going.

Orbot then slowed down, eventually sitting back on the floor and just looked at Eggman. This didn´t stay unnoticed by the egg shaped man and he stopped himself and turned around to look at the red robot. Cubot sat down beside his buddy and looked at him. Orbot just continued to look at his creator.

" . . . "

"What?" Eggman asked.

"... you were a way too much on deviantART... seriously.." the round robot said. (pft, did just someone break the fourth wall? xD)

"Hey! I was not!" the man snarled.

"Mhm" Orbot remarked sarcastically.

"Argh! Whatever! It doesn't matter! My plan will succeed! Whatever I added that or not!" Eggman said, turning around and continued to go. "And then... no one can stop me!"

He laughed evilly once again and just went away. Orbot and Cubot however still sat on the same spot and just watched him go away.

"And with that... 1737 times…" the red robot said, just shaking his head.

Cubot just looked at his red friend and tilted his head, not really knowing what he is talking about.

To be continued...


	4. Chapter 4

Lost Memories Chap 4

Meanwhile back in the room of the two confused beings, they still stood there and stared at the door. For good ten minutes that was all they did. No speaking, no moving, only their breaths barley hearable. Both were in their own thoughts, trying to process everything they just heard. Neither of them wanted to believe it but at the same time they didn´t really had another choice. This Eggman guy seemed to know so much about them. It still was very confusing. Slowly their eyes started to move. From the door around the room, looking at anything closely until their orbs met each other. They stared at each other for what felt like forever. Let's just say, it wasn´t the most comfortable view exchange. Both of them tried to say something, no matter what, but found themselves not being able to, which made the situation even more awkward. Turning their eyes away from another, they looked at something that suddenly seemed to catch their attention when it in real just made them stop to awkwardly gaze at each other without either of them saying a word. The black hedgehog looked out of the window seeing how the sun slowly sets while the red echidna looked at the different furnitures. Until his purple eyes ended up on that stupid bed they had to share and can´t help but let out a very frustrated sigh. This sigh made one of the hedgehogs ears twitch and slowly he turned his head towards the echidna in order to look at him. Although Knuckles wasn´t looking at the black and red streaked hedgehog, he could tell that the other was staring at him. His instincts told him but he tried his best to ignore it. Slowly, as if a sudden move would make the other creature attack him, he made his way up to the bed. The red eyes of Shadow following every movement of the echidna. This stare, even though it wasn´t threatening, made the fur on the back of Knuckles neck stand up. He didn´t know why though.

However, it hit Knuckles off guard when the hedgehog attempted to speak. He honestly didn´t think the black hedgehog would be the first one who breaks the silence. It kind of relieved and made him nervous at the same time. Again he didn´t know why.

"So…" the black hedgehog started, mostly actually to only break this awfully awkward silence that took place in the room ever since Eggman left.

Having a big question mark and a sweattrop run down Knuckles head, he looked at the black hedgehog and waits for whatever he had to say. Actually, Shadow himself didn´t know what he wanted to say and seeing the other being waiting for him to continue, made to think about a topic even harder. At that moment he wished that he would have just shut up but he couldn´t back off now.

"…this… is all very confusing… isn´t it?" the black hedgehog said, while looking at the echidna who gave him a nod in respond.

"Yeah… very actually…" he replied.

Back was this awkward silence but it wasn´t so long like the last time. After some moments Shadow decided to go up to the bed slowly. He stopped at the echidnas' side but made sure to give him enough space. Having his eyes on the freshly made bed he wondered if he should ask a quite stupid and in their case also embarrassing question. Of course Knuckles had no idea what was going on inside of his roommates mind so he just looked at him and eventually took a step away from him. Not that Shadow minded that but he still looked when the red head moved. Instead of asking why he made a step away, what Knuckles actually thought he would ask, he found himself being surprised again by what Shadow actually wanted to know.

"So… since I don´t think we have another choice anyway… who sleeps on which side..?" the black and red hedgehog almost sighed.

Knuckles blinked a few times at that question due to the fact that he didn´t expected that at all. Turning his gaze on the bed, he thought about an answer. Actually he didn´t care but he just wanted to turn away from that burning stare of the hedgehog beside him. The question didn´t only feel awkward to him but also to the hedgehog. Though the scientist told them that they knew each other really good, they felt like complete strangers to each other due them being not able to remember anything the egg shaped man told them. Especially the part of them apparently being a couple made them both freak out the most. The thought alone kind of felt wrong. Reason alone that they know absolutely nothing about each other.

However, the hedgehog waited patiently for the echidna to answer. He kept on looking at him but slowly let his eyes wander on the bed as well. At the same time the echidna moves his eyes towards the hedgehog, ready to answer his question. Shadow looked back at him when he began to speak.

"Well… I think I'll take the left side… if that is okay with you" he said with half lidded eyes.

His eyes didn´t showed boredom or annoyance, just blank unsureness about this whole situation they were in. Shadow could relate. It was exactly like he felt. That and a feeling of pure tiredness overcame him. Probably because of the lack of energy due his healing body. This just wants to make him fall on the bed, face first, and sleep for at least a year. Something Knuckles could relate on just as well. Anyway, they both looked at each other for a few more moments until Shadow replied to what Knuckles said before.

"Yeah, that's fine by me. Wouldn´t know why it should bother me anyway…" the tired hedgehog told him.

Wearing a surveying expression the red echidna looked at the black furred hedgehog, seeing clearly how exhausted he was. Just now he noticed how tired he himself actually was as well. A huge yawn was what followed out of it. Shadow couldn´t help but let out a very low and tired chuckle at the sight. The echidna didn´t seem to notice that though.

Howsoever, both then went to their own side of the bed, took their shoes off and sat on the bed. One thing that annoyed both was that there was only one bedcover but two pillows. Luckily for them the bedcover was large enough. So they finally lay down and covered themselves up, trying to stay away from each other as far as possible with their backs facing each other. After turning of the light, whose switch was above Shadows nightstand, they stared into the darkness. Overthinking and remembering everything that happened since they woke up. Remembering the story of how they got into this mess in the first place. Remembering the name of the person who apparently was the cause of all this. Sonic. Both had no idea who he was and how he looked like, but that didn´t matter. After what they heard, they both longed for revenge. But first they had to come back to full health before going after this desire.

Three hours past and Knuckles found himself not able to fall asleep though being tired as hell. His time feeling told him it was shortly before midnight but he wasn´t that sure. He just kept on staring into the darkness and wouldn´t dare to turn around, feeling uncomfortable at the thought of doing so and finding Shadow facing him. This would be a lot more awkward than it already was even though he assumed that the hedgehog would be asleep by now. A quiet sigh found its way out of his mouth and decided he would take a peek though he had those thoughts in the back of his mind. So he turned around enough to see that the red streaked hedgehog was still lying there with his back facing him. He laid there completely motionlessly. With a slow blink Knuckles turned back to his original position, yawning tiredly. After some time his lids finally became heavy and the red echidna closed them without himself noticing, dozing off into some kind of half heavy sleep.

About 4 hours later he woke up again, letting out a heavy groan. Slowly he sat up and rubbed his eyes and then his head. Not knowing what time it was he scanned over the room in order to find a clock. When he did, he narrowed his eyes to get a look on what time it was.

"4:17 a.m…." he quietly said to himself.

He groaned another time with closed eyes and rubbed his head once more. A headache was the last thing he needed beside dozen of wound and burns and another guy lying in the same bed as him. Wait. He opened his purple orbs to look beside him only to find the other side of the bed empty. After he blinked a few times and looked around the room once again, but couldn´t spot the dark hedgehog. Didn´t take long until his eyes landed on the glass door beside the window that leads on some kind of balcony. Tilting his head he wondered if the dark one was out there. Instead of guessing he slowly stood up and made his way over to the balcony door and opened it. Actually missing that the door was already open by only a centimeter. He stepped outside and looked around, finding Shadow leaning against the building wall while sitting on the balcony railing and quietly gazing into the horizon above the sea. At first Knuckles thought Shadow didn´t notice him but was proven wrong when the black hedgehog began to speak out of nowhere.

"Couldn´t sleep?" he asked without looking at the red head.

At first Knuckles wasn´t sure if he should answer and just go back to sleep, since he knew where his roommate was. But then he noted that he wasn´t exactly tired anymore and decided to stay outside.

"Sort of..." the echidna replied while walking beside Shadow and leaning against the wall as well, but in contrast to Shadow, he was standing.

"I see" was the hedgehogs own reply.

With a nod Knuckles responded and crossed his arms, gazing into the same direction as the hedgehog. They stayed like this for at least 5 minutes. With a comfortable silence between them for the first time. Then Knuckles slowly turned his head towards Shadow.

"What about you? Couldn´t sleep as well?" he asked him and a nod was his answer.

"Yes… I am out here for three hours already" Shadow answered, still not looking at his opposite who was blinking.

"You are out here since 1 a.m.?" the red head asked while tilting his head.

"I don´t know how late it was when I stood up" he said slightly looking at the creature beside him.

"Well… when I got up with was a little past quarter past 4" he assured the black one.

"I see"

After that another comfortable silence took place between them. Both looking over the seemingly endless sea. A soft breeze past them as they did nothing else than just look. But then Knuckles broke the silence once again.

"What where you doing out here?" he asked.

"….nothing actually. Just watching the ocean, star gazing and thinking about everything this man told us" he told him as he watched the calm waves coming.

With a calm sigh he looked at the dark furred being.

"…do you actually think he is telling the truth…? Um….Sh… Shadow, right?" he asked and got another nod as respond.

"I am not completely certain, but there is no doubt that he knows a lot about us, our preferences and such… I cannot tell if everything he speaks is the truth, but I guess right now and in this condition, we don´t have much of another choice as to give him a little of our trust…" he replied, still not looking at him but the sea.

Knuckles couldn´t help but raise one of his eyebrows slightly at the way Shadow spoke. It was kind of odd but at the same time it suited the dark one very well. A few minutes passed and neither of them said another word. They let the silence take place between them once again. But through this silence there popped another question into the red echidnas head. Not sure to whatever ignore it or daring to ask, he slowly moves his eyes on the hedgehog again who still looked into the horizon. As if it was the only thing that existed. Seeing that, Knuckles didn´t really wanted to pull him out of his little trance, but his curiosity got the better of him.

"…I… I still got one question…" he then asked.

Getting a 'Hm?' was Shadows way to show him that he had all his attention, even when he wasn´t looking at the red head.

"… What do you think about this… "us apparently being a couple" thing..?" he asked a little hesitating.

This made one of Shadows ears twitch and slowly he turned his head to look at the other male. Knuckles honesty couldn´t tell what was going on in the black hedgehogs mind. The look in his eyes told him absolutely nothing and slowly he regret to ask this dump question. The red head was about to say never mind but to his surprise the hedgehog decided to answer.

"I actually have no idea what I should think about that... I mean… yeah, the possibility of it being true is kind of there but I really don´t want to believe that it is. It… just feels wrong" he told him, his voice sounding pretty much neutral but still a hint of doubt could be heard.

The echidna nodded in understanding. How could he not anyway? It was the completely same feeling he had. The thought made his stomach feel weird. After they separated their looks from each other again, they found themselves watching the calm dark sea once more. Time seemed to fly by as they forgot of how long they were on the outside together already. Even though they did not speak that much. Actually Knuckles decided that he would go back inside soon but forgot his wanted action as Shadow attempted to add something else to what he said before.

"I guess it is the best, if we don´t bring this topic up again… if possible" was what he had added.

At least a minutes of silent staring at the hedgehog passed before the echidna slowly began to nod. The red eyes of the hedgehog moved towards the red echidna when he started to move his head up and down.

"Yeah, I guess it is for the better" he replied, giving him a small but friendly smile which Shadow hesitatingly returned.

It wasn´t a big smile though, but enough for it to be seen. As they kept on friendly smiling at each other the almost missed the sun rising. When the first red-orange rays of light hit the metallic surface of the base, they seemed to snap back into reality and looked at the beautiful spectacle of nature. One ray hit them directly into the eyes and blinded them both for a few seconds, but that didn´t bother them this much. After their visions became clear again they continued to watch the happening. The view was almost breath taking as the sun painted the few light clouds, who floated silently over the water, into shades of orange, red and yellow. As the two beings watched the rising sun, they couldn´t help but feel hope rising in them as well. Why it was hope out of everything was something they couldn´t quite lay their fingers on. Perhaps it was because the rising sun was some kind of symbol for hope. So or so, it was just an amazing experience to watch. Shadow and Knuckles continued to watch it before starting to go back inside their room as quietly as the sun raised.

Three hours passed until they finally made their way to meet Eggman. They both decided to take a short nap before they would go and see their so called boss or partner or whatever. Turned out the nap took slightly longer than it should, by two hours. Seemed like they were more tired than what they themselves thought but at the same time the two creatures weren´t that surprised. Knuckles barely slept four hours before and Shadow didn´t seem to have slept at all. If it wasn´t for two hasty and loud robots they wouldn´t have woken up at all this morning. So, slowly and tiredly they followed the two robots to the tall man with the moustache. A little later they reached what seemed to be a kitchen. It wasn´t that much of an ordinary one but it still reminded of a normal one. This here was just bigger than most kitchens would normally be. Didn´t matter that much though. As long as they could use it for what it was made, everything was fine.

However, when the two robots crashed through the door, got probably the heart attack of his life. Angrily he turned around to glare at the two small robots, who were innocently looking, sitting on the floor. The two other ones found that scene rather funny.

"How often do I have to tell you two to NOT storm into a closed room like that?! Especially when I am in there! You know exactly how much I hate that!" he snarled at his two creations.

Orbot tried his best to hold back a naughty giggle at the tall mans' reaction. Cubot, on the other hand, just scratched his head not knowing what they should have done wrong this time. With a loud sigh, Eggman rubbed the space between his eyes before turning his attention towards Shadow and Knuckles. As his eyes landed on them, he got a quite friendly smile on his face.

"Well, good morning, Shadow and Knuckles" he greeted them with open arms, making the 'Kiss the cock' apron appear.

The red echidna could just hold himself back in time so he won´t accidently start to laugh out loud, because Eggman just looked downright hilarious while wearing it. Still a small chuckle left his covered mouth. To his luck, the scientist didn´t seem to notice although the hedgehog beside him did, since he looked at him from his eye corners while Knuckles snickered. Shadow was also amused by his look as well but for some reason, he didn´t quite know, he could hold back very well.

"Hope you two had a good sleep" Eggman then said in a friendly tone.

Both were about to answer but a yellow and hyperactive robot was faster with answering for them.

"Actually a little bit too good, if you ask me, Doc!" Cubot told him while he hovered in the middle of the air. "They had such a deep sleep that we actually had to jump on them in order to wake them up!"

The tired hedgehog and echidna glanced slightly at each other, while Cubot flew around them room and almost shouted this out. Both couldn´t help but feel a sweattrop run down their heads from this overexcited robot. Even though those both had lost their memories, they still did know that robots shouldn´t be able to have emotions. So why this these ones had some, was completely beyond to them. Maybe they would eventually find out someday.

Anyway, while Knuckles and Shadow were in their own thoughts, Eggman could only sigh deeply at his yellow creations overwrought nature. He wasn´t really sure himself how exactly this happened, it just did. As he watched the yellow robot fly around excitingly, he eventually decided to just ignore him and move on. So his eyes wandered back to Shadow and Knuckles.

"Is that so, that you guys slept well?" he asked them with a hint of curiosity.

They looked up at the tall man, who was tilting his head at them. Honesty, they had no idea what they should answer. While Knuckled rubbed his head and thought about to just say yes or no, Shadow made no move to answer at all. He was too tired and didn´t actually care about the question. So obviously Knuckles answered for him then as well. When he was about to answer him, he was, again, interrupted by the same little robot who did this no 3 minutes ago.

"Of course, they have! Or why else we wouldn´t need to wake them while jumping on them, right?" the yellow cube shaped robot said loudly.

Shadow couldn´t help but pin his ears back. This robot was giving him a headache with his almost yelling and if he didn´t shut up soon the black hedgehog made sure that he would kick the yellow robot out. The red echidna wasn´t less annoyed by the yellow one actually but since he actually slept more than his roommate, his head wasn´t hurting that much. Eggman, on the other hand, just gave the small robot a glare. Oh, how he wished Cubot would just shut up and be quiet like Orbot. But this would be a miracle. Gazing at the mobian creatures he could tell they were just as annoyed as he himself was. So he better made sure that the robot shut up before one off them scraps him. Not really because of the robot itself… okay, a little maybe, but more because he feared they would not be able to control their strength and powers since they probably didn`t even remember that they have some at all.

"Cubot..?" he then said, looking at the yellow robot.

"Yeah, boss?" Cubot replied curiously.

This was clearly the calm before the storm. As if Orbot already knew what would happen next he made sure to cover his transmitters. He knew exactly how loud Eggman could get when he is mad and it broke his transmitters once. Not surprisingly he didn´t want that to happen again.

"SHUT THE HELL UP ALREADY!" the egg-shaped man then yelled at Cubot.

"YIKES!" the yellow one cried out in surprise.

He fell back at the floor and stared in fear at the man, just like always when he yelled at him. As Eggman continued to glare at him, Cubot started hovering again and flew back to hide behind Shadow and Knuckles, who were looking at him. After some time looking at the yellow robot, they moved their eyes up at Eggman. He did tell them, that he is evil and them apparently being so as well but, how could he just yell at someone who is pretty much a child? Let's face it, Cubot obviously is one. Yes, he did annoy them with his yelling as well, but still. The scientist then seemed to have called down from his outburst. Thanks for their ears he did. No need to mention that their ears hurt as well, just like the transmitters of Orbot even though he had covered them. Taking a deep breath, Eggman then shoved his glasses into the right position.

"Ehem… I am sorry for my outburst there… so… anyway. Are you guys hungry?" he then said like nothing had happened.

"I'm not really" Knuckles answered him, which surprised the red head himself actually, since Eggman told him and Shadow that they were unconscious for days.

"Me neither" Shadow added.

Sadly, no one could take him seriously because shortly after he said that, a short but loud growl of his stomach left his belly, what caused to everyone in the room look at him. An embarrassed blush spread across the dark hedgehogs' muzzle due him not expecting that at all. It didn´t help the blush as Eggman decided to laugh loudly at what just happened. He could tell Knuckles was close to laughing as well, but he somehow managed to hold back which the hedgehog was grateful for. The black ones' blush still got stronger by the mans' laughing and to hide it from everyone, he facepalmed. Soon the scientist became calm again.

"Hehe, seems like your stomach betrayed you, Shadow" he giggles a little.

As a respond, the hedgehog just crossed his arms and looked away with a little pout, the blush still slightly visible on his cheeks.

"Aw, come on, Shadow. Don´t play the grump. I didn´t mean it like that. Here, sit down. I'll give you something to eat" he said while pointing towards the table.

With a light sigh the hedgehog made his way towards the table, followed by Knuckles and even by Cubot. Why the yellow one followed was something he didn´t know. Perhaps he felt safe with them because they didn´t yell at him or something. Meanwhile Orbot helped Eggman with the food. As Shadow sat down, he leaned his head on his hand, supporting it. Then he closed his eyes due him being sleepy. A certain echidna could relate.

"Oh, by the way" the doctor began to get their attention. "Did you two start to remember something already?"

For a short time they stared at him and thought if there was something coming back, but soon found out that they had to disappoint him and shook their heads. First Knuckles, then Shadow.

"Oh… I see" Eggman said in a fake sad voice, while in real he was more than relieved that they had gotten no memories back from what actually happened.

Sometime later Eggman and Orbot brought all of the food they prepared to the table and the human took a seat as well. With one eye opened Shadow watched him tiredly but was wide awaken as soon as the food was put down on the table. At the sight his stomach started to growl again. Also Knuckles stomach let out a quiet growl even though he wasn´t that hungry. Hesitatingly they both looked up at Eggman, almost asking if they could take some. Amused the mad man raised an eyebrow, not really believing that they really asked. With a shake of his head and a chuckle he then said.

"Go on. Eat all you want. No need to ask me"

As if Eggman pulled a trigger with that, Shadow started to take what he wanted. He was hungrier than he thought he really is. Also Knuckles was about to get something for him but the doctor interrupted him. The red echidna then looked at the human in front of him.

"Before you take anything else, try these" He said and shoved a bowl of grapes over to him.

A very big question mark appeared above the guardians' head.

"Grapes?" he asked.

"Yeah"

"Why grapes?"

"Well… believe it or not, but grapes are actually your favourite food" the human explained.

This caused Knuckles to raise a brow. Why would grapes be his favourite food? They aren´t even warm or cooked or anything. Judging by the face Knuckles wore, Eggman could tell that the red one didn´t believe him. Oh, the irony. Anyway, the doctor just rolled his eyes under his glasses.

"Just give it a try. It won`t murder you" he then said.

At that Knuckles had to raise a brow again and tilted his head. But he shrugged it off and just took one or two grapes. Slowly he shoved them into his mouth and chewed them. At first no big deal until the flavour has completely developed. Knuckles blinked a few times before his mind starts to get a little foggy. Eggman sure did not lie. Grapes were definitely his favourite food. There was no doubt. As the red echidna continued to stare, the human couldn´t help but chuckle. He looked very funny being all in his own little world. Shadow, who was far too distracted with trying to get his stomach full, didn´t noticed that at all, in contrast to the robots who were trying not to giggle at the echidnas' expression.

However, about 45 minutes passed until all three of them were finished with eating. Shadow being as satisfied as possible now that his stomach was full. Knuckles also, was satisfied. He ate some different things but the grapes were definitely the best for him. Eggman himself was just drinking a coffee. He did eat already and was just waiting for the two sleepyheads. Once all of them were finished, stood up to get their attention, which succeeded. They both looked up at the standing man.

"Well, hope you liked it" he said.

"Heh, you bet" replied an all satisfied black and red hedgehog.

"Yeah, but what are we gonna do now?" Knuckles asked looking at Shadow, who was returning the gaze slightly.

At that, Eggman couldn´t help but grin. Before either of them could notice he had withdrawn it and cleared his throat.

"Well… how about I finally show you the one who did all this to you? I am sure you would really like to know, don´t you? And it's time for this anyway" Eggman smirked barely visible.

This made the hedgehog and echidna look up and straight towards the man again. Their expressions becoming serious almost immediately. The smirk became more visible on the doctors face because he could clearly see the fire in their eyes as he omly mentioned it to show them who is apparently was. That gave him enough information to know that they were more than willing to follow his commands to go after the blue troublemaker.

"You are speaking about that Sonic-person, don´t you, Doctor?" the black hedgehog asked in a serious tone.

"Yes, indeed, Shadow" Eggman smirked even more.

"Oh please, show us already! I wanna give this guy a payback for what he did!" the angry getting echidna said.

"There, there… how much I appreciate the fact that you both are so willing to follow my… erm, I mean, to get your revenge on Sonic… we need to go slow on this" he explained.

If they both hadn´t been distracted with trying to figure out already how to give this person their payback, they would have maybe noticed that little slip of the tongue that came out of Eggmans mouth. To his personal luck, they were too focused on just said things. Orbot and Cubot however did notice it and looked at each other. Clearing his throat again, Eggman tried to get their attention back.

"Anyway… just follow me now. I will show you how Sonic looks" he said, while looking at his teammates.

Both nodded in agreement and followed the tall human out of the kitchen towards a huge computer room. The two small robots were left behind but eventually decided to follow them as well, though their creator probably will kick them out after sometime, because he thinks they are a pain in the butt. And he also openly shows that. After who knows how many corridors they finally reached the room with Eggmans huge home computer were all his data is saved in. Data like all what he found out about his opponents, mostly about Sonic but also including Shadow and Knuckles of course, all his blueprints for robot henchman, plans for fighting and destruction robots like Death-Egg Robot, airship plans mostly for the Egg Fleet, spare plans and his shopping list for the next week. Well… I never said, it was all about being evil, right? At the same time, his whole home/base computer had such a complicated system that it was almost impossible to hack. Even for Tails who could keep up with his IQ. Also he himself would have problem but he would have a higher success rate then the young fox. This guy sure has a way to much free time.

Anyway, soon after they entered the room, Eggman went straight towards the main computer, sat down and started to type things in so fast that Shadow and Knuckles hadn´t even a chance to read. Standing slightly behind the human, both looked at the huge monitor and waited for the doctor to show them. A few moments later Orbot and Cubot also showed up. All eyes were focused on the big screen. Soon Eggman found the file of Sonic and opened it. Shadow and Knuckles looked closely at the picture of the blue hedgehog, who was in a running pose and wore his trademark grin. Red and purple eyes narrowed at the blue furred being. With a big evil grin Eggman looked back at them.

"So… this is him?" the black and red streaked hedgehog asked.

"Yes, indeed" the doctor smirked. "This blue hedgehog you see here… is Sonic the Hedgehog. Or better… the one who left you for your death… and is also the one who brought you into the situation you are right now..."

A perfect act the doctor put on. Still he had some doubts, because he knew Shadow wasn´t as easily fooled as Knuckles. So the man wasn´t sure if the black hedgehog fully believed him. What he didn´t know, although the hedgehog had still some small doubts, most of him believed what the doctor told them. He couldn´t look through his act. No surprise Knuckles couldn´t tell truth and lies apart as well due him behind gullible. With crossed arms the echidna then said.

"Tsk, I may not know much about this hedgehog… but only looking at him kind of annoys me… I don´t know why, but I have a feeling… " he explained.

"Yeah, me too" Shadow said, what made Knuckles look at him.

At this Eggman had to grin again. It was a good sign. Even though they forgot everything, they still had the feeling of annoyance in them whenever Sonic was around. He would gladly use this for his advantage.

"Well, no wonder. You may not remember but he always made you feel annoyed when you were on the same side. Even more after you joined me and he got into our ways" told them.

They looked at each other after he told them that, but soon were looking at him again. The doctor then turned back to the computer and opened other files of his blue opponent. He showed them videos he took of them fighting against each other, told them his weaknesses and the fact that he can run at the speed of sound and such. Though Shadow and Knuckles wouldn´t admit that in front of the human, they were a little bit impressed by the blue hedgehog. They wondered how they should take on someone with that kind of speed. By the looks on their faces, he could tell what they were thinking. Eggman suspected something like this to be honest. But he planned to get rid of this. While Shadow and Knuckles still looked at the picture of their enemy, the scientist slowly stood up and went to the door while his arms were crossed behind his back. After seeing how the blue boy looked like and remembering the story the mad scientist told them, Knuckles and Shadow were more than sure that they wanted revenge. And the fact that looking at this picture alone made them feel annoyed did nothing but fuelled the fire inside of them even more.

As Eggman reached the door, he turned around and looked at his partners. It was like he could feel their motivation to take action and this made him smirk. Orbot and Cubot looked up at their creator. They have never seen him this confident with a play that started not how he had actually planned. Maybe the reason he was, was because of all people he could have hit with his laser, it happened to be Sonics biggest and strongest rivals. This confident look in their creators face almost scared them. Anyway, it was time for Eggman to show the two beings their own power and strength.

"Shadow, Knuckles" he began to make them turn towards them. "It's time for me to show you something else. So follow me"

And with that he left the room, followed by his robots companions. For a few seconds the black hedgehog and the red echidna remained where they stood. They looked at each other before starting to follow the scientist. After seemingly endless numbers off corridors they reached another huge room. But in here stood little to nothing and caused two big question marks to appear above Shadow and Knuckles' head.

"What is this here?" the dark furred hedgehog asked.

"This here is my trainings room" Eggman explained and looked down at them.

"Ah, right, you said something about training yesterday but… how should we train here? There is nothing in here" Knuckles said with crossed arms.

"I am aware that there is nothing in here. For now at least. Later you can choose what you want to train with, with this control over there" the tall human told them and pointed towards a control on the wall.

"I see… but what did you bring us in here for? When we apparently only are allowed to train 'later'" Shadow questioned and crossed his arms just like his red companion.

"To tell you about your own strength and powers"

That got their full attention. They had powers as well? Now Eggman made them eager to know what kind of powers they had.

"Alright, alright! Calm down you two. I will tell you or else I wouldn´t have brought you here" he said.

"Still wonder what for… it's not like he couldn´t tell us in that computer-thing-room…" Knuckles whispered towards Shadow and caused him to chuckle low.

"Shadow, I will start with you" said and moved his eyes towards the dark one.

"Dammit" pouted the red one what caused the robots to giggle a little and the hedgehog to smirk.

Anyway, Shadow gave the tall human his attention. Some seconds later he also got the echidnas' again.

"So Shadow, with those shoes you wear you are also able to reach the speed of sound just like Sonic does. Without them you are still really fast but not fast enough to catch up with him anymore. When you concentrate your energy into one of your hands, you are able to create energy spears called 'Chaos Spear'" Eggman started.

Shadow looked at his hands and wondered if that really is true. When Eggman attempted to continue he gave him his attention again.

"You can also make yourself explode. This attack is called 'Chaos Blast'. You being a hedgehog made you also able to curl into a ball and starts spinning at a high amount of speed. This attack is called 'Spindash' or 'Spinattack'. But what you need to know is, that Sonic is also able to do that one. And the last, what is quite much your trademark… you are able to teleport yourself wherever you want if you have one Chaos Emerald with you. This is called 'Chaos Control'" he finished to explain.

Even though Shadow had no idea why most of his powers started with 'Chaos' or what a Chaos Emerald was, he was very excited to know that he had so many different abilities and attacks. The only thing that was fishy to him was, that he could literally explode. It sounded very painful mind you. And he wasn´t really eager to kill himself. Or wouldn´t it harm him himself? He would ask how exactly that should work later. Right now a just as excited echidna beside him distracted Shadow a little. After hearing all the cool abilities Shadow had, Knuckles wanted also to know what he can do which is understandable and only fair.

"Wow, that's quite cool! What can I do then?" he asked eagerly.

"Umm…" came out of Eggmans mouth.

"Can I also shoot something out of my hands? Or can I maybe control minds? Or can I maybe control one of the elements? Ohhh, please! Tell me already!" he demanded like a little child and had just an as big smile on his face.

"Uhh… well… ehem… actually… you are… reeeeeeeeally strong… like… really" the doctor said, feeling a sweattrop run down his head.

That big smile on the echidnas face dropped immediately. The disappointment could be clearly seen on his face.

"And… and that's it?" he asked not really wanting to believe that.

"Well… you also can make some kind of drill attack" the human said copying its movements with one finger of one of his hands. "… that… and you can also dig quite well…"

With a half open mouth he stared at Eggman. This was really it? No cool shooting ability? His disappointment was enormous. From the corner of his eyes looking, Shadow watched the echidnas' reaction. With gritted teeth, Knuckles clenched his fist. That was just not fair in his book.

"Ah, fuck it!" he shouted and before he knew what he was doing, he took a swing with his fist and punched against the hard metallic wall and caused a big hole to be there now with his hand stuck in there.

With wide eyes he stared at his stuck fist and the hole he just punched. Not less surprised the hedgehog looked at this as well, his eyes opened as wide as his lids would let him. On the other hand, Eggman grabbed his own head and gritted his teeth.

". . . . . "

Slowly Knuckles pulled his hand back, causing the hole to get bigger. He took a few steps back until he stood beside the black hedgehog who had his eyes still focused at the hole that suddenly was in the metallic wall. After getting over his shock the doctor needed to faceplam hard.

"Oh, come ooooon! I just repaired that wall!" he groaned.

Knuckles had to blink a few times but was still staring at the hole he just punched. Slowly he moved his still wide eyes towards Eggman.

"Y-you know what..? Nevermind" was all he could say after what just happened.

"You know… I really hope you never get pissed at me" Shadow then said, still having a very surprised look on his face.

An awkwardly grin appeared on Knuckles face after the black one said that. While groaning deeply, Eggman rubbed the space between his eyes. He looked up, at the hole and sighed.

"Well… Orbot, Cubot… remember me to fix this later…" he sighed.

"Alright, boss" Orbot replied.

With that the scientist turned towards the two smaller creatures, having his eyes half lidded below his glasses. Knuckles couldn´t help but give him an apologetic grin.

"Heh… Umm… sorry for that…" the red head said.

"….whatever…. let's forget about that and just move one… alright?" said with the most enthusiastic voice you have ever heard.

Yes, this was sarcasm. So, after some time of explaining to Shadow of how certain attacks of his can be used and what he needs to do, he told him to give them all at least one try. Except for Chaos Blast because Shadow refused to do that one as long as he doesn´t need it. Eggman also told Knuckles to go to sit beside Orbot and Cubot and NOT to touch anything. First awkwardly grinning but then rolling his purple eyes, he did what Eggman told him and sat down beside the two robots, watching his roommate and so called boss.

First Eggman told Shadow to try the Spindash. That one wasn´t a big problem for the dark hedgehog due him making this out at pure hedgehog instinct. When they came to his Chaos Spear it was more of a problem.

"So… how exactly do I have to do this now?" he asked and looked at the man with the moustache.

"Concentrate the energy you have inside into your hand. When it starts to glow, take a swing and shoot your energy spears" he explained to him.

Shadow nodded in understanding and made himself ready do to exactly what the man told him to do. So he focused on his hand in order to bring his energy in there. After a minute of hard concentrating his hand slowly started to glow. Then he put his hand back for a swing. When he moved it forward fast, his hand stopped glowing and except for a fart noise nothing came out of it. A blink and a hard laughing echidna and two just as hard laughing robots were the result. Eggman tried not to laugh out as well.

"Shut your laughing over there!" the embarrassed hedgehog shouted.

And slowly they also calmed down again. Then he stopped glaring at them and looked at his hand instead. While making a fist, closing his eyes and gritting his teeth, he focused once again at his hand. This time harder than before though. He wanted this to success. So his hand started to glow again, stronger than before. Shadow opened his eyes and grinned victoriously. But this didn´t last long as suddenly energy sparks came out of his hand and shoot in every direction. A few towards Knuckles and the two small robots. All three of them screamed. Orbot and Cubot hold onto the red echidna and that one ran away from the strong sparks of energy, trying his best not to get electrocuted. Also Eggman tried to hide somewhere and this caused him to jump around and scream like a little girl. Shadow tried to stop it but he had no control over it. To the luck of all of them the energy died down some time later. Eggman and Knuckles were out of breath and Shadow scratched the back of his head. Then the red echidna glared at him.

"What was that for?! Were you trying to kill us?" he hissed at Shadow.

"Not really although you kinda deserved this after laughing at me before" he grinned back.

"Why you?-" he started but got interrupted by a certain man.

"Next time we try that out… remember me to get into another room" he said between coughs.

A sweattrop found its way down the hedgehogs head. He saw already a lot of training coming towards him in order to control all of his attacks. Anyway, after checking everything to see if there are no to big damage, he continued his first training with Shadow in order to get him used to his attacks. After some more tries, they moved away from chaos spear to Shadows trademark ability. For this Eggman pulled out a Chaos Emerald and gave it to the dark hedgehog. As he held it in his hands and looked at it, he had to tilt his head. He wondered what this was. Knuckles looked just as curious at the emerald.

"What is this?" Shadow then questioned the doctor.

"This is a Chaos Emerald. A really powerful jewel. There are only seven of them around. They hold a high amount of chaos energy within them and are a great energy supplier for pretty much everything that needs a lot of energy in order to work" explained.

Hearing this explanation was enough for them to put two and two together.

"I see… so those falling into hands of people, who don´t know how to use them correctly, is a great danger then. Am I right?" Knuckles then said.

"100% right, Knuckles" the human grinned.

"So, I guess then... you are also very interested to get all seven into your hands due them being so powerful, right?" Shadow then added.

"Also this is correct, my dear hedgehog. You need to know…" Eggman started and turned his back towards them, with his arms crossed behind his back. "If you manage to get all seven of them, you are able to unleash a power so incredible strong that you are literally able to destroy the whole moon with one blow. Naturally, this makes their power also very feared. Though, they are neither good nor bad. It's all about the one who uses them…"

This made Shadow and Knuckles first look at each other but then at the shiny emerald in the black and red hedgehogs' hand. Hard to believe that such small objects have such a huge destructive energy.

"Anyway, Shadow… let's continue. This will also be the last thing for today then. You two are still not fully healed and need some rest then"

Shadow and Knuckled nodded.

"Okay, so what do you want me to do?" the dark hedgehog questioned.

"All I want you to do is to focus on the emerald and then say 'Chaos Control'"

"Okay, but what will that cause?"

"It will only teleport you somewhere nearby. Don´t worry. But before you do that, take this here" Eggman said and put a communicator around Shadows wrist.

The hedgehog looked suspicious at the small electronic object.

"What is this for?" he asked and raises a brow.

"There is a little camera in there, so I can see where you landed. We can also speak over it"

"Alright"

"Good. Knuckles, you come with me" Eggman said and looked at the red echidna.

Looking back at the human, he nodded and followed him to where a little monitor stood. The red head wasn´t sure if that one had stood there all the time or if Orbot and Cubot just brought it in. But he guessed it didn´t really matter. He was more curious at what it was for in the first place. As soon as Eggman and Knuckles turned around to watch Shadow, he began to focus on the emerald.

"Chaos Control!"

And in a flash the hedgehog had vanished. At first the four who were left behind did nothing and just waited for the hedgehog to respond over his communicator. But they forgot about that when they suddenly heard some quiet but hard swearing.

"What the hell..?!" could be heard quiet low.

Blinking and looking around, all four tried to find from where is was coming. That was until it hit Eggman. So he turned on the monitor just to see all white. That kind of looked like a snowstorm. His jaw dropped a little. Knuckles, who was raising an eyebrow, Orbot and Cubot looked at the screen as well. Where ever Shadow landed, it looked like it was somewhere high. They heard the hedgehog swear again, putting his hands up in the air what made them discover some sharp looking rocks.

"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!" Shadow shouted out.

Not really believing what they were seeing, they couldn´t help but tilt their heads. With one hell of a glare Shadow stared into the communicator.

"Where the heck am I?!" he shouted, demanding an answer immediately.

Cleaning his glasses first to make sure he didn´t see wrong, then answered.

"Well… I am not completely sure but…. This looks kinda like the Himalaya" he assured him.

"WHAT?!" could be heard from the other side.

"Umm… Doc? Didn´t you say he would land somewhere 'nearby'?" Knuckles then questioned him.

"Well… to be honest… I did thought that but…. I was really not expecting this..." he answered, while awkwardly scratching the back of his head.

"Get me outta here!" Shadow shouted.

"Calm down, Shadow! Just use chaos control again" the human tried to calm him as he looked back at the screen.

"Fine… Chaos Control!" the hedgehog shouted another time.

The next time he opened his eyes, he saw nothing bit sand, sand and more sand as far as the eye can see. This second everyone was silent. The only noise that could be heard was the noise of the dessert wind. When a steppe runner crossed Shadow, he lost it.

"Are you freaking kidding me?!" he shouted as loud as he could.

Back in the base, everyone stared at the screen once again, while Shadows swearing was heard in the background.

"Now… it looks like he is in the Sahara…" Eggman announce, more to himself than to the others but whatever.

"Wow, he does have luck! I would love to visit two hostile areas like this at the same day!" Cubot cheered loudly in excitement, what made the other robot facepalm and feeling lightly ashamed.

It passed a few moments until Eggman came to his next decision, while the hedgehog on the other side was still swearing like no morning. He must admit, Shadows vocabulary was quite huge due him knowing words the human wasn´t even aware that existed. Knuckles was also quite impressed. He really needed to remember some of those words he heard. Suddenly he was also very glad he didn´t had that kind of power. The last thing he wanted was to end up somewhere like Shadow at the moment while not being at full health. Howsoever, slowly he looked up at the taller man, who was still looking at the screen.

"…Maybe… I should get him back before he ends up on the ground of the Mariana Trench…" he said to himself.

In the back of his mind was the thought of Shadow still being injured. So suddenly appear in the coldest of the coldest and then change to the hottest of the hottest in a blink, wasn´t the heathiest idea ever. Despite having this also in mind there still appeared a taunting grin at the echidnas' muzzle.

"Well… that at least SOUNDS like a plan…" the echidna teased and earned an embarrassed chuckle from the scientist.

To be continued…


	5. Chapter 5

Lost Memories Chap 5

After about two hours later, after Eggman got the dark furred hedgehog finally back to the base and after Shadow and Knuckles took a small rest from the beginning of their training, the two quilled creatures decided to have a look around outside of their base. Why they took a rest? Because both of them were still injured and covered in bandages, ergo their bodies were still healing and of course even small things exhausted them quite fast. But the small rest didn´t help that much because they were still really tired due the lack of sleep they had, but at the same time both refused to go to sleep although Eggman offered it to them. Well, it was not his problem. He was sure they knew what they do but he still made sure he wouldn´t let them out of sight. All around the base and its surroundings were cameras. So if something would happen, he would know it immediately.

Anyway, it was a quite nice day. It was warm. Not too cold but not too warm either. It was just right. For Shadow and Knuckles it was the first time that they were outside the building since they woke up from the, if you want to say it with Eggmans' words, coma. Well, except for Shadows' small world adventure. The hedgehog was glad that he was brought back as a whole. However, as the two looked around they noticed that the nature he seemed to be subtropical. The trees where quite high and the plants as a whole didn´t look like they would grow in a place with too cold weather. But all in all the nature here looked amazing. If Shadow and Knuckles didn´t know how to keep their cool, they would be looking around, being amazed like a little child on new years' eve. Seeing colour combinations of all kind but not one that displeases the eye.

"The doctor sure knows how the have a nice… garden, doesn´t he?" Shadow joked and looked to his red furred companion who had to grin because of Shadows little comment.

"Heh, you bet, but he could really work on his interior decoration skills." The echidna chuckled, but soon had to hold his stomach. Even small chuckling caused some pain already.

"True that" the dark hedgehog replied with a low chuckle himself.

Things weren´t awkward between them anymore now that both seemed to have got used to the situation. At least on the outside. On the inside they both still didn´t know how to handle all of this that well, but they still tried to stay calm. There was a lot on their minds but the small walk helped greatly to forget about this for a while. After some time they started to hear soft noises of ocean waves. Knuckles halted and listened to the sound. With a raised eyebrow Shadow turned around to look at the echidna.

"Something the matter?" he asked and tilted his head softly to the side.

"Do you hear that?" Knuckles replied.

"You mean the water?"

"Yes"

"Yeah, why?" the dark furred asked in wonder.

Sadly his question stayed unanswered because Knuckles started going towards the noise, ignoring Shadows question. With a big question mark above his head he followed the taller echidna.

"Why are you in such a hurry all of sudden?" he asked and hopes to get an answer this time.

"That seems fishy" was his reply and that caused the question mark to get bigger.

"What are you talking about, Knuckles?"

Again his answer was left unanswered but soon they reached to where Knuckles aimed. A beach with sand as white as snow. As soon as Knuckles stopped Shadow did so as well. The dark furred hedgehog looked around before his eyes stopped on Knuckles, who was first looking to the right and then to the left. All he saw was the white beach, the deep green vegetation and the blue water. Then Knuckles turned around to look at the huge silver shining base. Shadow couldn´t help but raise another eyebrow. Knuckles' behaviour was odd and he only knew him for like a day and he can tell this already.

"What is up with you?" he asked, slowly getting impatient from not getting any answers.

"It seems we are on an island" Knuckles finally answered.

With a few blinks Shadow looked around though there was nothing interesting to spot. Apparently it was true. They were on an island. But why Knuckles was so fascinated about it was not clear to the black and red streaked hedgehog.

"Yeah, so?" Shadow shrugged and looked back at his red companion, who looked back at him.

"Just sayin'. Because… when we were on the balcony last night we were gazing into the other direction" he explained.

Now that Shadow thought about it. That was true. Their room was on the other side of the base. Right above the coast. When Shadow sat alone on the balcony last night he took a look around. What he didn´t notice until now, was that he didn´t spot any mainland. Only water and nothing else. If it wouldn't be too awkward to say to him, he would dare to go as far to call it a quite romantic few. But that just wasn´t his style.

"I guess you are right" Shadow then said and shortly after he did, Knuckles started chuckling. That made the hedgehog tilt his head. "What's so amusing?"

"Oh nothing~ But don´t you think that is a little bit TOO cliché? The bad guys' base being on an island? It probably isn´t even marked on any map" Knuckles told the other.

And he didn´t even guessed how right he was with that. In fact. The island really wasn´t on any map. How Eggman then found it was a little mystery. Either he was just very lucky or he made the island himself. We will probably never know about that. Anyway, while Shadow and Knuckles were on the beach, Eggman sat in his huge little interstitial space filled with surveillance cameras to have an eye on them. He also had a camera for their room but that one was obviously uninteresting right now. He rather watched what his partners were doing and how they get along. He still had doubts if his plan with them works out. A good thing for him was that they didn´t start to remember but that doesn´t mean they couldn´t start to hate each other again. He really didn´t need that. You see, if that happens they will become useless for the doctor. He wanted to win against Sonic not trying to get them off each other's throats all the time. To his luck they seemed to get along very well.

While Eggman himself was silently watching them Cubot and Orbot were sitting on the ground. At first they watched the human but when he remained silent they started to get bored. Now they were guessing how long it would for them to get their memories back.

"I bet they will get them back when the boss needs them the most. Probably right then when they have to fight against Sonic" Cubot said, being pretty sure about his guess.

"I think it will randomly happen. Like when they eat breakfast or something" Orbot replied.

listened to their guessed while watching the hedgehog and the echidna. Right now they were going along the beach. Then he said without noticing.

"You're both wrong…"

That drew the robots attention. They were wrong? Interesting.

"What do you mean with this, boss?" the small red robot said, looking at his creator.

It seemed that this pulled him back into reality.

"Eh… what?" he wanted to know.

"You just said we are both wrong. What does that mean?" Orbot asked again, tilting his head.

At first Eggman just looked down at them. His expression neutral. He stayed like this for a while before replying to Orbot.

"Nothing, forget about it" he said and slowly stood up from his chair.

"But why?" the red one out of the two asked.

"If I tell you, you would just screw this up" the man said harshly.

Orbot couldn´t help and needed to reply something to that. It was no secret that he was, in contrast to his yellow buddy, not very fond of his creator and the chance was just there.

"Says the guy who told them they were a couple" Orbot said, making the man stop right in his track.

If Orbot could grin, he would have a really big one right now. Sadly it was not possible for him to make such a face but it was still worth it as Eggman turned around and looked at him with a glare.

"Oh, shut your loudspeaker, Orbot! There was a reason why I told them!" the doctor said in a defending manner.

"Which was?" the red robot demanded to know.

Then there was silence in the room.

"….just shut the hell up and get Shadow and Knuckles back here. Their injuries need to be treated" the glaring human said and left the room right after it.

The two left behind robots looked at each other. Cubot being slightly confused like always while Orbot had a small victorious spark in his eyes.

"I knew he had no reason for telling them THAT, heh~" he said proudly.

"Telling them what?" Cubot asked and tilts his head.

"That they were a couple"

"Who?"

"Shadow and Knuckles"

"They are a couple?!" Cubot shouted out like he hadn´t heard it before.

There the victorious spark goes as he looked at his yellow ally. Maybe Cubots' memory card had a crack or something? He would make sure to check that later but first he looked into a certain direction with a not that pleased look on his robotic face.

"Umm… excuse me, dear writer? Could you please stop making Orbot this dumb? I guess it is fun for you but it gets really exhausting. Thank you" he said.

In Cubots cameras he was talking to nothing, which made the yellow robot sweattrop. Obviously that red little party pooper was breaking the forth wall. But alright. If it makes him stop complaining and breaking it, I'll look what I can do.

….ehem… after their boss left, the robots would go to get the other two back to the base. How Eggman already said, their wounds need to be taken care of. Disinfect them and cover them with new bandages and probably force them to rest so their bodies can heal better. At first Orbot and Cubot had doubts if the quilled creatures would cooperate with them. Since they were just two little robots, barely half as tall as Knuckles or Shadow. Beside that they also were just the sidekicks of Eggman. So they really didn´t expect Shadow and Knuckles to do what they say, but to their surprise they actually did do what the robots wanted from them. It was a very rare experience that anyone does what they tell them to, except for Eggmans' other robots but only because they were programmed for that. Their surprised reaction made Shadow and Knuckles raise an eyebrow. They shook it off though and slowly made their way back to the base. Slowly but surely they got tired form being on their feet this long. And after Eggman took care of their wounds they went back into their room to lie down on the soft bed. Just like the night before they lie on the bed with their back facing each other. Just this time it wasn´t as cramped as before. It still was but not as much.

Both of them were tired but they still had trouble to get to sleep. Be it the fact that it wasn´t that late yet or because they still weren´t completely comfortable with lying in bed with another guy. Or maybe it was the pain of their burns that kept them awake. They weren´t sure what exactly it was. At least it still felt good to lie on a soft surface and relax the sore muscles. Why didn´t they just took Eggmans' offer to rest before? It was clear both overestimate their limits in their currents states a little. Next time they would be wiser. Eventually.

At the same time on another part of the world. Far away from Eggmans' base, the blue blur Sonic the Hedgehog was sitting on the cliff, looking right at Angel Island which was swimming in the sea without moving an inch. The island was too heavy to be moved away by the soft water waves from its current spot. A soft breeze was moving over the grass and through the hedgehogs' quills. Sonic was hugging his legs while he starred over to his red rivals' home. But right now there was no Knuckles on this island, nor was obviously the Master Emerald. With a sigh Sonic rested his head on his peach arms, but his gaze did not move away from the as usual peaceful looking island. His ears dropped slightly and so did his eyes. That was when his ears twitched at the sound of something cracking. He lifted his head and turned towards the noise. His eyes landed on two of his friends. Silver the Hedgehog and the fire bending princess from another dimension, Blaze the Cat.

"There you are, Sonic. Tails was already worried where you've gone" Silver said, while tilting his head softly to the side.

Sonic, who remained silent, looked at them for a few moments before he rested his head again on his arms with a sigh. His gaze returning to Angel Island. The other two were then looking at each other in wonder. Sonics behaviour was quite odd for the blue hedgehog. They then walked up to him.

"What's the matter, Sonic?" Blaze asked with a slightly worried voice.

"….it's been four days…." Was what she got as an answer.

Confused she tilted her head before she looked at Silver. Blaze hoped he would give her an explanation with what Sonic meant. But when the silver furred hedgehog stayed silent, the fire bending cat looked back at her blue friend. Just what did he meant with four days? Silver on the other hand knew what Sonic meant. His eyes moved to the ground before he also looked over to Angel Island.

"….is it Shadow and Knuckles?" he then asked and achieved a nod from Sonic.

"What is wrong with Shadow and Knuckles?" Blaze asked them, though more Silver than Sonic.

"You don´t know yet?" Silver replied as he turned towards the purple girl and got a slight shake of her head as answer.

"Oh… okay… You see… four days ago… Sonic, Shadow, Knuckles and I went to Eggmans' base because he stole the Master Emerald. And… an accident happened and Eggman got away, taking Shadow and Knuckles with him" He explained.

"How did he managed to take them with him? As far as I know they are very powerful" the cat replied and tilted her head, while crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"They got unconscious…."

Blaze had to blink a few times in surprise. Normally she is good at keeping a neutral face expression but sometimes even she had to show some sort of emotion. As Silver continued to explain, the blue hedgehog was not moving an inch from where he sat. Sonic, who was listening but not looking at them, started to grip his arm. Quilt was nagging at him badly. Ears being pinned back on his head, he put a hand on his face, covering his eyes.

"It's all my fault" he then said to himself, but loud enough for Silver and Blaze to hear.

Their conversation ended as soon as this sentence came out of the blue hero's mouth. It was actually a shock to see Sonic like this. He rarely has this bad feelings of guilt and even when he has, he doesn´t show it in front of anyone, since he does not want anyone to worry. But this time it was too much and he didn´t care that his two friend saw him. Silver and Blaze themselves have actually never seen him like this. And they know him for quite some time. Sonic wasn´t crying however but seeing him like that, someone could easily assume that he was. With a sigh Silver went over to Sonic and sat down beside him. Everything went quiet. At least a minute passed before Silver turned his head towards his blue rival in order to speak to him.

"It was not your fault, Sonic… and you know that" He assured him.

"….don´t say that, Silver" Sonic answered and looked at the younger hedgehog. "You know just as well as I that it is my fault that Eggman got away… who knows what he is doing to them… if they are okay, they would have got away from Eggman already and tried to beat the shit out of me. After all... I got them into this. But they aren´t here… it's been four freaking days!"

It was very very rare for Sonic to stress out at something, but this seemed to trouble the hedgehog greatly. Slowly Silver wrapped an arm around the blue ones shoulder. He tried to cheer him up this way. Sonic on the other hand blinked a little at the sudden move. Normally Silver wouldn´t go as far as to make body contact with the others, but he assumed some sort of a hug would be a better way to light up Sonics mood than just trying to cheer him up with nothing but words. Sonic moved his head to the side to look at the younger males face. A smile greeted him.

"Head up, Sonic. I am sure they are fine. They don´t die or give up that easy. You should know, right?" Silver smiled at him.

Sonic stayed silent as he looked at Silvers face but a small smile appeared on his face as well. He appreciated that his friend tried to comfort him. Blaze, who was watching Silver handling the stressed hero, tried to figure out what the hell could have exactly happened but she couldn´t. She looked at them and slowly went up to them. There was no way she would be left unknowing. The ears of the two boys moved towards her and soon their whole heads did so as well. They lifted them to look at the standing cat.

"What did happen exactly anyway?"

At this Sonics head moved down again, trying to avoid Blazes' golden eyes. Silvers eyes followed Sonics' movements and sighed.

"May I tell her?" he asked.

He didn´t wanted to make Sonic uncomfortable. That's why he asked if he was okay, which he indeed was after Sonic gave Silver a nod.

"Alright…" the future boy said and looked at Blaze. "Four days ago we got into Eggmans' base and fought down his robot army. But we didn´t do that well. His robots got so much power… assumingly due the Master Emeralds' energy. One of the doctors' robots managed to grab Sonic and I tried to help when I spotted Eggman sitting in a canon or something. It pointed towards Sonic so I used my powers to throw a broken robot piece at him. Shortly after that I got pinned but the piece hit Eggmans machine but it pointed at Shadow and Knuckles then… and Eggman flew against the trigger and a laser shot right at them"

*Flashback*

"UaaaaaaAAAHHH!" Shadow and Knuckles yelled, trying to get away, but it was too late.

The laser hit them with a loud bang and the shockwave hit everyone else in the room. After that was gone, Sonic looked wide-eyed at where the other two just stood.

"NOO!" he yelled in disbelieve.

After the smoke faded, Shadow out of the two was the only one who still stood. Knuckles was lying on the ground. His fur steaming. But Shadow steamed as well. His eyes blurry and not moving at all. Slowly he fell on his knees and finally on his stomach. Sonic and Silver had their eyes wide, as their friends laid there motionlessly.

"SHADOW! KNUCKLES!" Sonic yelled, while he tried to get out of the robots grip. "LET GO OF ME!"

He struggled and wiggled but it was no use. He couldn´t get out of the robots strong grip. Silver, being the physically weakest out of the four, didn´t even try. He knew he would not get out using his physical strength. While the hedgehogs were still in shook, Eggman sat in the cockpit wide-eyed like the other two before. He starred at the two unconscious creatures. Cubot and Orbot hopped up to also get a look at what just happened.

"….well…. I did not see that coming" admitted the human, while still having the same face expression.

"What a surprise! The plan failed" Orbot spited out, earning a glare from his boss and creator.

"Shut up, Orbot! It did not! At least… not entirely!" Dr. Eggman defended himself. He added a thought. "Maybe I can use that to my advantage…"

"Not entirely?" Orbot then asked him. "What do you mean with that? You wanted to get Sonic, not them. Ergo, it failed"

His, in Eggmans' eyes disrespect, angered the man and soon a loud argumentation replaced the silence beside Sonics' desperate yelling. The hedgehogs struggling got stronger and stronger and his yelling even louder. But the robot did not move. His grip stayed tight. But the blue hedgehog didn´t give in. He wanted to get free and the longer he was captured the angrier he got. Helping Shadow and Knuckles is what he wanted but as long as he was in the robots hand, he couldn´t do so obviously. Silver, who was watching the scene of Sonic while being pinned at the wall, slowly got worried about his friends' outburst. He wanted to help as well, but he couldn´t get out. He was in a shock which caused him to be not able to use his powers at the time. Sonics' yelling in rage filled the room.

"Sonic…." Silver said to himself.

His worry started to grow when he saw Sonics' fur turning darker. He wasn´t sure at first if he saw right and narrowed his eyes to see it better. And indeed Sonics fur got darker and darker. Silver had no idea what was happening to his blue friend but he would soon find out. While Eggman and Orbot were still in their argumentation, Cubot noted that the Master Emerald started to glow more than it already did. But not in the normal green color it normally used to, but in a darker, dangerous looking shade of green.

"U-Um… b-boss…?" he asked, pulling on the doctors clothes to get his attention.

"Grrr. What?!" he snarled at Orbot who was pointing at the M.E.

He calmed down immediately and blinked in confusion. He had seen that before but he couldn´t quite remember from where. Orbot in the meantime was crossing his metallic arms and would pout if he could. He looked away from Eggman until his cameras landed on Sonic, who was glowing dark blue, almost black.

"…..um…. Doc…?"

Eggman turned towards Orbot who was pointing towards the captured blue hedgehog. His eyes widened as he saw what Sonic was turning into. That was when it shot right into his head. He had seen the emeralds glowing like this when Sonic turned dark. And at this moment, it was happening again. Sonics yelling turned into roaring and screaming in anger. The robot had already trouble to keep the hedgehog captured and by the looks of it Sonic would not be held like this for long anymore.

"We need to get out of here!" Doctor Eggman as he jumped out of the cockpit and ran towards his eggmobil.

Orbot and Cubot followed as fast as they were able to. The Doctor could be quite fast when he wanted to, despite his exorbitant body shape. Sonics' roaring got louder and angrier. He tensed up his whole body to break free. Slowly the robots hand gave in what made Sonic able to move more. Cracks became visible and larger very fast. Silver did absolutely not like what he was seeing.

"Sonic!" he yelled but that was in vain.

The blue hedgehog acted like he did not hear that. No five seconds later the robots hand gave in completely and Sonic broke his way free. First the huge invention looked at his destroyed hand but when he turned its cameras back to the blue hedgehog, the last thing it perceived, was a fist punching right into its head. Sonic teared the head off the metallic body and soon the whole robot crashed on the ground. It was only a matter of seconds until Sonic attacked all the other robots. Destroying one after another. Causing explosions due the highly flammable liquids that were running out. While his arch enemy was busy with letting his blind rage out, the doctor took his chance to get to his Eggmobil. Once he reached it, he pushed a button which made the laser canon turn into a flying weapon. He looked over to the furious hedgehog, who was standing in the middle of crashed and burning robot parts. He screamed like a wild animal, which was very terrifying to some point. The other hedgehog was still pinned helplessly against the wall. Silver hated the fact that he was not able to do anything right now. If he just could get out. He would rush over to Shadow and Knuckles and take them somewhere save before trying to calm Sonic.

However, when the canon started to fly, Sonic stopped his screaming and looked up. He growled and jumped up. He curled up into a ball to attack the flying canon. But Eggman wouldn´t let him. With his Eggmobil he shot Sonic, making him fly and crash on the ground. He didn´t stop there though. Dark Sonic rolled and bounced over the ground and groaned each time he hit the hard floor. To Silvers' luck, Sonic hit the robot arm which pinned him to the wall because it was stuck in there. He teared it off the wall and made the silver furred hedgehog be able to finally get away from there. But that was no reason for him to relax. Soon Sonic was able to stop when he got his feet on the ground to break. When he looked up, Silver was the first person he saw. With a loud growl he attacked his rival. A loud gasped escaped Silver mouth when the now dark blue hedgehog came right at him. Silver dodges his attacks as good as he could. He knew that he won´t be able to dodge them forever though. It was no secret that Sonic was a lot faster than Silver. He had to fight back eventually.

When Eggman saw Sonic attacking Silver, a sigh of relief came out of his mouth. This way he didn´t need to deal with this furious form of Sonic and can concentrate fully on getting away from there. Soon a grin appeared on his face. A plan was pooping up. He looked over to the fighting hedgehog to make sure they were still busy which in fact they were. Then he turned his attention back on the keyboard on his flying vehicle to type something into the bases system. Orbot and Cubot, who were looking over Eggmans shoulders, watched what their creator was doing. Soon a very loud, deafening and high frequency sound came up, making Sonic and Silver holding their ears and scream out in pain. The man had no problem with that. Only his enemies and the robots were able to hear that, but since Orbot and Cubot where the only functioning robots left, the doctor had no problems with using this. His sidekicks could just turn of the microphones and they would not be affected by this anymore. Sonic and Silver however brought this to their knees. Their ears very ringing terribly. With a smirk Eggman flew over to the unconscious creatures to pick them up. They very terribly injured, since they were exposed to any explosion Sonic caused in his rage. Burns, cuts and other bad looking wounds were spread all over their bodies. Blood was running out of a few as well. Eggman knew he had to get away fast.

"….Orbot?" he said then, not looking at the small robot however.

"Yes?" he answered.

"Initiate the bases' self-destruction" he ordered.

"W-what?" the red robot asked just to get sure.

"NOW!" Dr. Eggman snarled and looked at him.

He whined in fear and pushed a red button on the Eggmobils' keyboard and a loud alarm started immediately. Desperately Silver tried to keep Dark Sonic away from him. The high-frequency sound made the blue hedgehog even more pissed. He didn´t understand why Sonic went after him though. What he didn´t know was that, when the blue hedgehog turns into this form, he can´t tell friend and enemy apart and attacks everything that moves. But when the alarm came up, Sonics attention was drawn towards the noise and got Silver the chance to fly away from him but he didn´t quite understand what the alarm means. Until a robotic voice was heard.

"Warning. Self-destruction initiated. Self-destruction in T minus 60 seconds"

The silver hedgehogs eyes widened in horror. He looked around for Shadow and Knuckles but he could not spot them. He hadn´t much time to worry about this though when he saw Sonic rushing towards the flying Eggmobil.

"SONIC! NO! COME BACK!" he yelled and followed the mad blue hedgehog.

It wasn´t easy to follow through the smoke and extreme heat. Silver had to fly near the ground to even see where he was going. He coughed and had trouble to breath. When the two were close to the doctor, Silver eyes widened once again as he spotted Shadow and Knuckles in Eggmans' vehicle. A determined gaze took place on his face but this didn´t last long when the same robotic voice from before came up.

"Self-destruction in T minus 30 seconds"

This was when it hit him. When he tried to get Knuckles and Shadow out of the mad mans' grip, they would have no time left to leave the base before it destroys itself. Sonic on the other hand didn´t seem to realize that. All he wanted was to rip Eggman apart and everything else near him. He was still filled with rage and didn´t care for anything except for his goal to murder. Eggman himself however was only looking at them with an evil grin on his face. No matter how this would end, it would be his victory even if this means he would die in the progress. Seeing this made Silver grit his teeth. Only one option was left for him. After Silver yelled a loud "damn" he used his powers to grab Dark Sonic who was roaring in anger as he got stopped from what he wanted. With no time to waste Silver turned around and tried to find a way out as fast as possible, soon finding the hole in the ceiling they came through. As they disappeared through the ceiling, a loud evil laugh came from Eggman who opened a sluice, he and the other could escape through.

Back to Silver and Sonic they just came through the hole and flew through the open base door. Just in time because a few seconds later the base exploded. The shockwave hit the two hedgehogs directly, making Silver losing control over his abilities and crashing together with Sonic on the ground. They rolled a few meters before they finally halted. Silver groaned in pain and slowly lifted himself up, coughing hard. He breathed in a lot smoke what made him a little dizzy now. The adrenaline that rushed through his body faded. A deep sigh came out of his mouth. It was a relieved one but there was one thing he had forgotten. He was still not out of danger. He realized this when a dark growl disturbs the silence. This made him look up fast and gasp. Dark Sonic was already on his feet again and dangerously growling at him. His white eyes not leaving Silver out of sight. Slowly Silver kneeled without any fast movements. Even his breath was slow.

"Sonic… calm down…" he then slowly said while having his hands in front of his body to defend himself if needed.

All Sonic did was growling and slowly he made his way up to Silver. Then all off sudden Sonic jumped towards him. His opponent could just react in time and jump out of Dark Sonics way. This caused the hedgehog to hit nothing but the bare ground. As soon as he did, he already went for another attack which Silver dodges again. The younger hedgehog tried to calm Sonic but it didn´t work. They continued like this for like five minutes before Silver had enough. Sonic managed to hit Silver very bad and that was when Silver decided to end this. His eyes started to glow light blue and soon his whole body did so as well.

"Okay, Sonic. I didn´t want to use my powers on you, but you are leaving me no choice!" he said as Sonic was getting at him once more.

Silver grabbed Sonic with his psychokinesis and made him fly in the middle of the air. The blue one struggled and growled but that did not impress the younger hedgehog at all. Slowly Silver closed his hand, turning it into a fist. Sonic yelled out in pain at the same time and tried hard to get out of Silvers grip. When his hand fast almost closed, the raging one passed out, his fur turning back to normal. After he lost his consciousness, the silver furred hedgehog fell on his knees. His hands were on the ground to give himself support as he took deep breaths. Silver was clearly exhausted but he couldn´t stay here. They couldn´t stay there- Both were injured and who knows what Eggman will do to them when he finds them in this weak state. Sonic, being unconscious, wouldn´t be able to defend himself and Silver was too tired. With his last strength left, he picked up Sonic and started to make his way back to Tails house. It was hard but he needed to get there as fast as possible.

*End of Flashback*

Blaze looked at him wide eyed. Her mouth was slightly open at the story Silver just told her. Sonic on the other hand was looking away, his arms crossed in front of his chest.

"….as you can see, Blaze… it was my fault that Eggman got away…" he said quietly.

"How often do I have to tell you this, Sonic? It was not your fault! You had no control over yourself" Silver said as he looked at his blue friend.

"That is exactly that, Silver!" the speedster replied as he turned towards the silver furred hedgehog. "I lost control. My anger got the better of me and turned me into Dark Sonic. If I would have been able to control it, we could have saved them. But we couldn´t because of me! It WAS my fault!"

Silver rubbed his forehead in frustration. Sonic could be so stubborn at times and it annoyed the normally optimistic white hedgehog. Just how can he make him understand? Before Silver could add anything to what Sonic said, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up and saw that Blaze was shaking her head. There was no need for words. Silver understood what Blaze meant. Time was what Sonic needed. Time to accept what had happened. Knowing Sonic… he is not that type of guy whose mood his bad for long. He will get better soon. That was something that everyone knew. Even not so close friend of the blue hero knew that. After a few more minutes Silver stood up and stretched. The speedster looked at Silver as he does so.

"Oh well… but let's get back to Tails house now, okay? He made you some chili dogs. At least… that is what he had told us" Silver told him, dropping the other topic with this.

That made Sonic smile actually. His little brother. Tails was always worried about Sonic. Especially then when his mood isn´t the greatest. That was what he appreciated a lot about Tails. That he always tried his best to cheer him up. And that he is always there for him. No matter the situation. Of course the others do the same, but he feels like Tails is the only one who truly understands him in certain situations. So he stood up and cleaned himself from some dust. He looked at his two friends and smiled at them.

"Alright… then let's go~"

Back to Eggmans current base, Shadow and Knuckles were still lying on the bed, but neither of them could sleep. The dark hedgehog lay on his side while Knuckles was looking at the ceiling. A low growl came from the echidna and caused Shadows ears to twitch back.

"This sucks…" the red echidna said quietly.

With that and a sigh Shadow turned around and sat up. He looked down on his red companion with a tried gaze.

"I'm guess I know what you mean, but to make sure… how about you tell me?" he offered and rubbed his eye.

Knuckles sat up as well and pulled his legs close, hugging them gently.

"…I'm tired as hell… yet I can´t sleep… I don´t get that… why is it like that? Shouldn´t we be able to fall asleep like he first 5 seconds we lie in bed?" he huffed.

"Well… maybe it is because our brains are processing everything that had happened? Or it is our healing bodies… or because we are in the same bed together… I am actually not sure what it really is… it could be one of them, none of them or them all together… but whatever it is… we still need to try… it's for the better of both of us… I mean… look at our state" Shadow told the red echidna and pointed at all the bandages.

"I know about that! And I swear… my legs hurt like hell and stuff… but still. We have been at least 2 hours here and still couldn´t fall asleep" Knuckles pouted. "Despite the bed being really soft…"

"Oh well… maybe you need something to relax? Something that calms your mind"

"Like?"

"Watch the waves"

"Meh…. No… I am too lazy to stand up now" Knuckles said and let himself fall on the bed, turning on the side to hug his pillow.

Shadow couldn´t help but chuckle at that. It did look adorable but he didn´t want to embarrass his roommate. So he didn´t say anything towards it. He lay back down on the bed and pulled the covers over him. With a sigh he closed his eyes and nuzzled into the pillow. He allowed his body to relax completely. The feeling of soon falling asleep came over him. But there was one thing he had left to say before he shut down his mind for the night.

"….maybe we should take Eggmans offer to rest next time, by the way… The island is not running away and we have plenty of time exploring it…."

This was the last thing Shadow wanted to say before he was driving off. Knuckles on the other hand, opened his eyes and looked into the darkness. A small smile appeared on his muzzle before he closed his eyes again and started to relax his sore muscles himself.

"…..I agree….. I dunno… but I got the feeling that… if we are less exhausted at night… we would have it easier to fall asleep…. Sounds completely stupid I know… "To exhausted to sleep"… kind ironic… don´t you think..?" he chuckles quietly.

Also Shadow got a smile on his face and only replied with "Mhm". It did sound stupid and was very ironic but everything was possible. That was life and it was full of weird, funny or ironic stuff.

"Anyway….. good night, Shadow… sleep tight…" Knuckles yawned before he cuddled into his pillow.

"You too, Knuckles…" replied the dark hedgehog.

They needed their rest. Especially since Eggman planned on training them how to use their powers perfectly. He may not be harsh when it comes to that, but they were easily exhausted and it was a big mistake to not take his offer. They needed every little rest they could get. To get back to full health. To reach their full potential. And to get their revenge on the very person who supposingly got them into this mess. And exactly that person was the last thing they saw in their heads before both drifted into a deep sleep.

To be continued…


	6. Chapter 6

Lost Memories Chap 6

Weeks had passed since Shadow and Knuckles woke up from their putative coma. Their wounds have pretty much all healed in this time and both trained under the doctors sight to get back to their full potential in order to help Eggman fight against the one who apparently has been the very cause of their injuries in the first place. Sonic. Both haven´t seen the blue hedgehog in person yet. Even after this high amount of time. The reason why the two quilled creatures' haven´t already gone after Sonic the Hedgehog, was Dr. Eggman. He told them to be patient and wait until they got their full abilities and power back before even thinking about leaving the bases' island and look for their enemy. Shadow and Knuckles didn´t understand why though but they won´t doubt the mans' decision, who took care of them, helped them get back on their feet and saved their lives. They trusted him and just continued to train to maybe get even stronger than before they lost their memories.

But it wasn´t only training Shadow and Knuckles did to get use of the time they had on the island. They had plenty of free time between their training, and after they healed up so much that they didn´t get exhausted so fast anymore, they started to explore the island together. It wasn´t such a big landmass but it still held a few beautiful spots. Not only that. The fact that they spend so much time together, be it exploring or training, got them to know each other a lot and even become friends. They didn´t forget that Eggman told them that they are apparently a couple but they tried not to mention it. After all, beside friend-like feelings, they held nothing for each other and there were times they even forgot about this detail. Though when it got mentioned, they just shrugged it off. The result of getting used to it and accepting it if it was true. This was the only thing the echidna and the hedgehog were sceptical with. If it was true then at least one of them should have started to feel something for the other after all this time. No matter how small but until this point of time nothing happened. Sleeping in the same bed together however stopped long ago to be an issue for the two quilled ones. Actually it only was for the first two weeks but later than that they slept in the same bed together like they have never done anything else before. Though they never slept with their faces facing each other but this is unknown to them since they, well, sleep at that time.

Anyway, at this time Shadow was training in the big hall, Eggman leaded them into the very first day they woke up. He has a lot more powers he needed to learn how to control, so the Doctor spend some extra time there with the dark furred hedgehog in order to help him and give him advice. That was leaving Knuckles all alone by himself which gave him great boredom most of the time. When he was alone, there wasn´t much he could do than to stupidly walk around or wait in his and Shadows room until he was done. With the hedgehog he could at least talk or even joke around but like this it was just plain boring. In the end though, he always found something to kill time. In this situation he would go outside and lie down on the grass and let the sun shine on his fur. Knuckles was rather outside the cold metallic walls of the huge base than to be captured inside, but this time however he stayed inside. Surprisingly to even himself since the red echidna actually planed on going outside again until he had noticed something. He lived on this island for so many weeks already but has never actually looked through the building except for those rooms and hallways Eggman or Orbot and Cubot showed him and his black furred friend. So instead of going back outside he stayed inside the base and started to explore it. After good thirty minutes he could bite himself in the butt for never looking through the building before or for never asking the doctor to show them around. Why? Because he got lost. As he made his way down a hallway, Knuckles mentally cursed to himself. What a stupid idea to go around such a large building alone when you have no idea where everything was. This building was like a huge metallic labyrinth. How Eggman actually can remember all the ways to whatever room is beyond the red head. Wondering that wouldn´t help him at the moment though. Knuckles rubbed his head and looked around, hoping he would find a hallway that looked somewhat familiar to him. Sadly it was in vain. He brought himself somewhere in this base he had never ever been even close to before. He couldn´t even tell if he was still above the ground or somewhere under the earths' surface by now. The base was build deep into the ground as well. It was a mystery to Knuckles where Eggman actually got all the materials to build a building this huge. But these thoughts aside. The priority he has to worry about the most right now was to somehow get back from where he came. The hope began to slowly fade when it took him twenty other minutes and didn´t find a way back.

That was until a strange energy hit him. This made the red echidna look up and gaze further down the hallway he was in right now. The energy he felt was very very familiar with the energy that builds around Shadow whenever he uses his Chaos Control but in contrast to this, the energy he felt right now was so much more stronger, it made Knuckles curious. With no time to lose he started going towards it and only felt it getting stronger the closer he came. Soon he reached a quite big window in the middle of the hallway that connected yet still separated the corridor from the room behind it. At first Knuckles wondered why there suddenly was a window out of all things. Who wouldn´t wonder? A few moments later curiosity got the better of him and so he looked inside, tilting his head at what he saw. A huge green emerald, that looked very familiar to the so called Chaos Emeralds, were placed inside a hole in the ground to support it with 3 or 4 small cleaning robots that just made their job and cleaned the gem. As Knuckles looked at the green glowing emerald he couldn´t help but feel very drawn towards it. The energy it was sending felt so awfully familiar but he had no idea why it would have such a big impact on him while Shadows energy did nothing at all. Knuckles placed a hand on the glass as he starred inside for a few minutes. His mind went blank in that time, like he was hypnotized and didn´t even notice that two small cheeky robots made their way up to him. As they sat only one meter away from him and he still did no move that shows he noticed them, they looked at each other. A few second later they broke the eye contact again and looked at the huger red male.

"What are you doing here, Knuckles?" Orbot and Cubot then said, breaking the silence that took normally place here.

They could tell that Knuckles did absolutely not see that coming as he winced in shock and surprise. It kind of looked hilarious to see such a though person flinch like that. With wide eyes the red echidna turned towards them and let out a huge sigh in relief when it were only Orbot and Cubot.

"Jesus Christ, you two… don´t shock me like that…!" Knuckles sighed and placed one of his hand on the side of his chest where his heart was.

"Sorry" both apologized at the same time.

"Anyway, what are you doing here, Knuckles?" Orbot then asked again after he and his friend said sorry to their red ally.

"I… kind of wanted to look around the base while Shadow trained…. We never really got shown around… and that ended up with me getting lost… the base is way too huge if you ask me… what reminds me… how did you two find me or did you just happen to pass by?" Knuckles asked while tilting his head and looking down at the robots.

"Actually he have been sitting in Dr. Eggmans interstitial space. About 10 minutes ago we saw you going through the hallways and well…. Here we are now" the little red robot explained.

"About Shadow. He and the boss are done training. Just so you know~" Cubot added a second later.

"That is actually good to know…. By the way… can I ask you two something?" Knuckles asked and crossed his arms.

"Yeah, sure" Orbot and Cubot answered at the same time.

"What is that in there?" the red echidna then asked, pointed into the room and looked inside.

At first Orbot and Cubot looked at each other before flying up and sitting down on the taller creatures shoulders. When they looked inside and saw that Knuckles only meant the Master Emerald they tilted their heads. Knuckles however only looked at Orbot, who was resting on his right shoulder and hoped to get an answer to his question. Soon the little red robot looked at him to answer just that.

"Oh, that is just the Master Emerald" he answered.

"Master Emerald?" he wondered and achieved a nod.

"Yes. It is the most powerfully of all the Emerald and the Doctor uses its incredible power as source to make everything in this base work" Orbot explained.

"That would explain why we never get a bill for electricity…" Knuckles added jokingly before looking back through the glass. "But there is something weird about this Emerald…."

That made the robots look at him and question him what was wrong with it. If there would be anything wrong with the emerald and they didn´t tell Eggman, they would get into big trouble and they really tried to avoid this. The Master Emerald was by far the most important item on this island and they were sure Eggman would stop at nothing to protect it from harm of any kind.

"Wha….what is wrong with it, Knuckles…?" Orbot asked almost afraid.

"I don´t know… I just feel… drawn towards it… but I don´t know why…" he answered.

After he answered, Orbot could feel a stone falling from his non existing heart. How did the echidna dare to scare him like this? Before he could say anything about it, Cubot cut right through his attempted sentence.

"That is probably because you were its guardian!" the yellow robot almost yelled out.

Knuckles blinked in confusion at Cubot while Orbot covered his face with one of his hands. He liked Cubot. He really did but his childlike outbursts of information the echidna and, if he would be here, the hedgehog probably shouldn´t even know, made him slightly paranoid. He was afraid they would suddenly start to remember everything if they say too much. Though when his cameras got a sight of Knuckles still confused face, he started to calm a little.

"…I was?" Knuckles asked.

That got his curiosity since it was a detail Eggman did not mention, what made him wonder. The power this emerald gave off was incredible. Why would Eggman not tell him that he was the guardian of such a powerful item?

"Yeah! But that was before you-" Cubot started but got cut of by Orbot who wanted to prevent damage before it was done.

"HOW ABOUT you ask for more information about that if you really want to know?" the red robot cut in in the hope it would bring them both off topic what seemed to work as both looked at him.

"That is actually a quite good idea… it also would be interesting to know what I did before everything went blank" the red echidna told them.

"G-good. T-then how about we walk back? Since Shadow and Eggman are done for today… you can go back to get him as well? …Maybe it would be interesting for him either?" he said and hoped he didn´t sound too nervous.

Though Knuckles did notice it, he decided to shrug it off. He wasn´t exactly eager to get any information out of Orbot and Cubot if one of them was not comfortable with it. He guessed it was also out of fear of Eggman. Knuckles saw that he was ready to hurt the robots if they did something that annoyed him. Most of the time Knuckles felt pity for them and so he just went along with Orbots' suggestion. When the red echidna nodded in agreement, the two metallic beings jumped off his shoulders and started to hover over the ground to lead Knuckles back. After Knuckles went away from the window, he couldn´t help but glance back but he didn´t stop following his allies. Ten minutes passed when they reached the part of the base Knuckles was actually familiar with and sighed in relief now that he could orient where he was again. At a cross of two corridors all three of them halted.

"So… yeah… I guess from here you know where to go" Orbot said and turned around to look at the taller echidna.

"I do. Thank you Orbot, Cubot~" he smiled at them. "I'll just go and get Shadow. See you later"

And with that he turned around and went into the direction of his and the hedgehogs room. As soon as Knuckles was out of sight, Orbot grabbed Cubot and dragged him as fast as possible towards Eggman. Cubot shrieked a little when he suddenly was pulled away. It didn´t take long until they reached the room Eggman was in. It was a big room the doctor used for building weapons and at this point he was working on one. As always the robots made a very… graceful appearance which made the human jump up in shock.

"WHAT IN THE WORLD, YOU TWO?!" Eggman yelled at them as soon as he knew it was just them.

"Boss! We may have a problem!" Orbot stated slightly stressed out which made his creator raise an eyebrow.

"Why? Did you see any of Sonics friends near the base?"

"No, but Knuckles found the Master Emerald!" the red robot stressed.

"….that's all? Why are you stressing so much over it?" Eggman then asked in wonder and tilted his head.

"I actually wonder that too, Orbot. Why you got all stressed?" Cubot questioned Orbot and floated in front of Eggman to sit in front of him but still facing the other robot.

"Well…. I just thought this would be bad…. What if he starts to remember? …it didn´t help when you told him he was the Master Emeralds guardian, Cubot!" he said and crossed his arms slightly glaring at the yellow robot in front of him.

"Now, now, Orbot. Calm yourself. It's okay" Eggman told him and received a tilt of his creations head. It was clear that he waited for an explanation why it was okay. "He won´t start to remember. So there is no reason to get stressed"

"Oh really? How come?"

There was no way he would be left unknown after he panicked. Eggman figured out that much and rubbed his head with a sigh. He hoped he didn´t have to tell them the reason but it seems that this hope just got destroyed.

"Okay… I'll tell you two…. But I dare you to screw it up!" he glared down at Orbot and Cubot and got nods from both of them. In the back of his mind he still had the thought of deleting that part of their memories later since he can never be sure with this both. He had to think about that. "So….. not too long ago I figured out that they aren´t going to remember anything because…"

At the same time with Knuckles, he was almost back at his room. Shadow, who was in there already for good some time, was getting bored and ready to look after his missing roommate. To his luck he didn´t need to do that because right then the red echidna came through the door.

"Oh, hello there, Knuckles. Decided to finally show up, huh?" he teased and grinned.

"Yeah… hi to you too, Shadow" Knuckles replied while raising an eyebrow.

"Where have you been? Normally you are here when I come back… or somewhere outside, lying in the grass" he stated and leaned against a wall.

"Yeah… about that…" he began and rubbed his neck. "I kind of got lost inside the base. Didn´t find the way back…."

As a reply he got an amused snort by Shadow which made him blush in embarrassment.

"Oh shut it! I wanna see you find your way around the base without knowing where to go to get back!" he snarled at him with that flushed face of his.

"Heh, I'm sorry.~ The image was just to amusing to not give a reaction" he smiled at the already annoyed echidna.

"Ha. Ha. You are so funny" Knuckles said in a sarcastic manner. "Anyway… how was your training? Finally had the guts to blow yourself up?"

Now it was Shadows turn to blush in slight embarrassment. A smirk found its way on Knuckles lips after he saw his roommates' reaction. With a sigh Shadow looked away. It was clear he hated to admit it.

"No, I did not. But I made it clear enough that I will not do that unless I really have to. I know that Eggman said it would not harm me myself but…. I… am really not eager to explode literally….." he told his taller friend and looked back at him while a sweattrop ran down his head. "Beside that it was quite good, I assume. I actually feel ready to go after that blue hedgehog now to be honest. I don´t understand why Eggman doesn´t let us do that already"

"Don´t ask me, but I am sure he has his reasons. Speaking about him… while you were training I found something quite interesting"

"Oh, really?" Shadow replied back and tilted his head.

"Yeah…. I found a huge emerald, called Master Emerald, which Eggman uses as power source for the whole island. Orbot and Cubot found me then and told me that I was apparently its guardian" he told his black and red furred friend while going over to the bed and sit down on his side.

Shadows' ears perked up at what Knuckles said. Master Emerald? Guardian? Interesting. He pushed himself away from the wall and went up to Knuckles. Grabbing a chair in the progress and placed it in front of Knuckles with its rest facing him. He sat down and rested his arms and head on the chair-rest to look at him.

"That is… cool, I guess? But still… Master Emerald?"

"It looks like a Chaos Emerald but it is way huger. I actually wanted to go to Eggman and ask him about it…" he said as his purple orbs met Shadows' red ones.

"You seem very interested into it. How come?"

"Well… when I found it, I felt every… drawn towards it… I don´t know why though. But it would make sense if it's true that I was its guardian"

"Well, now I wished I didn´t have to train. I want to see that thing now as well" Shadow pouted slightly and let his ears hang to the side in annoyance.

"You poor hedgehog. I'll show you maybe… since I know how to get there now"

"Fine with me… so… shall we go the doctor now? I wanted to ask him something myself anyway" the dark hedgehog asked and stood up from the chair, bringing it back to its original place.

With a nod Knuckles stood up and looked at Shadow. After a short view exchange they left the room and went to where Eggman normally was at this time of the day. Since they lived with him for some time now, they got to know how the human normally spend his days. No surprise they also knew that he was working on his inventions at this point. So they made their way to his lab. In contrast to Orbot and Cubot, Shadow and Knuckles learned to be polite enough to knock before entering the room Eggman was in. They weren´t eager to be yelled at, which happened three times and each time both suffered from a bad headache later on. Something about the doctors' voice had this nice little side effect whenever he yelled. Well, either it was that or that's because their ears are so much more sensitive then human ears or robot transmitters. Anyway, after they knocked they soon heard a "come in" from their boss and so they did. Eggman was just cleaning his hands from oil when he watched them come in.

"Shadow~ Knuckles~ How can I help you?" he greeted them and smiles.

"Hello to you as well, Doctor…. Umm… the reason we came here is because both of us have a question…" Knuckles said right away and rubbed his neck.

"Ask away… although… I can guess that your question is about the Master Emerald. Right, Knuckles?"

Hearing the doctor already knowing about his question was surprising to Knuckles. His face also showed his surprise and blinked a few times while looking at the tall human. Shadow, who stood beside him, really tried not to let out another amused snort because his face looked funny like that. Eggman however felt a sweattrop run down his head. He already expected what question comes next.

"How did you k-" Knuckles started but got interrupted by Eggman.

"Orbot and Cubot already told me that you found the Master Emerald and that they told you that you were its guardian… which is true by the way" he told him and looked at the red echidna.

"Well then… since it is obviously connected with my past… what is it about this gem? And why did I use to be its guardian but not anymore?"

"You are right. It is connected to your past. You used to guard it your whole life before you guys started to work for me" started and grabbed a chair to sit down. "You see… the Master Emerald is the most powerful of all the emeralds. As you know by now…. It alone powers everything in this base. Be it my machines, the lights and whatnot. And that is not even a fraction of its power. Of course it is not meant to actually power such things" A slight chuckle left his throat. "Anyway… something as powerful as this should better not be left alone without someone looking after it. And that person was you"

"Yeah, I know about that but why did I USE to guard it but not anymore?" Knuckles wanted to know and tilted his head while crossing his arms.

"Easy. After you started to work with me, you had some trouble to decide to whatever stay in my base or stay with the Master Emerald. Though you are the only one who can control it other are still able to use its power so I got an idea. You just took the Master Emerald with you and well…. Here it is. You allowed me to use its power but… therefor I had to make sure no harm will come over it. Which is fair enough" Eggman lied and tactical avoided to mention Angel Island.

"Makes sense…. Would be bad if someone takes its power and use it against us… Thank you for telling me" Knuckles said with a smile and scratches his cheek.

Eggman made a simple hand move to say that he is welcome. At the same time Shadow just stood there and waited till those two were done. He wasn´t actually that interested in the story with the Master Emerald. It was somehow clear to him that Eggman wanted such a powerful item as power source. After Knuckles and Eggman were done talking he pushed Knuckles, not rough, back. This confused the red head a little and looked at Shadow with a, to the side tilted head.

"Now that you two are done talking about the not so important stuff…" he started.

"Hey!" Knuckles growled at him angrily but only earned a grin from Shadow which was not meant to tease Knuckles in any way. It was more meant as a "Calm down, I'm just joking" kind of grin. Thankfully the echidna understood this and calmed down as fast as he got angry.

"I actually have a question myself, Doctor. It's less… personal but more a business question" Shadow said as he took a step forward and crossed his arms.

"Oh? Now I'm curious. What would you question be then?"

"Look… Knuckles and I have been up for weeks now and we trained every day to get back to our full potential. When are we allowed to go after that blue hedgehog? I find it very irritating that we are not allowed to go after him after what he has done to us, Doctor" the black and red hedgehog said and looked at the human rather annoyed.

Shadow did just not understand why Dr. Eggman didn´t let them go till now. After all, both of them worked hard and respected his wish but the more time passed the more impatient he got. He wasn´t even alone with that. Even Knuckles thought it was rather annoying to wait and wait. They were healed up and back to full strength. They had their abilities and powers perfectly under control. Except for Chaos Blast because Shadow still refused to do that. Both were even great as working as a team after they fought down a bunch of Eggmans' robots that he provided for their training. And most of all. Both were eager to finally face Sonic. This burning fire was flaming inside of them ever since they knew what the blue hedgehog had done to them. Clear enough for everyone to see that they wanted to repay him for leaving them in the fire to die.

When Eggman saw the fire that burned in Shadows eyes, he started to chuckle. A slight frown appeared on Shadows face when the doctor suddenly started to chuckle. He looked back at Knuckles who returned the gaze and shrugged. Obviously he didn´t know either why Eggman started to laugh like that all of sudden. Anyway, the attention of both of them went back to the human when he stood up from his seat and walked over to them. He didn´t stop in front of them but walked by and stroked his moustache with his fingers as a grin appeared on his face.

"As a matter of fact, my dear hedgehog…. I planned to let you two go after him by tomorrow" he said as he turned back at the two smaller creatures.

Red and purple eyes were fixed on him and waited for him to continue.

"I have watched Sonic the past days and I know that he will be all by himself tomorrow. That is the perfect timing for you two to appear on the scene" the scientist grinned evilly.

"About time" Shadow said and turned his head a little to the side without letting his eyes go away from Eggman.

"I really appreciate your zest, Shadow but I actually don´t want you to attack him that hard already…" he said and only earned confused looks.

"What do you want us to do then?" Knuckles asked and crosses his arms himself.

An even more evil smirk appeared on the mans' face as his red companion asked this question. His eyes wandered away from them as he continued to speak.

"Give him a suitably warning. That you are back….. and that you mean business!" he answered in a dark and evil voice.

Without looking he could tell that Shadow and Knuckles looked at each other after he said that. Smirks as evil as the bald mans' appeared on their lips as they locked eyes with each other.

"Fair enough, Knuckles?" Shadow smirked at his partner who was cracking his infamous knuckles.

"Fair enough!" the red echidna smirked back, ready than never to finally encounter the blue hedgehog.

"Good good, you two…. Then get ready for tomorrow and give this pest a warning that will follow him into his worst nightmares" said before he started to laugh in a loud and evil manner.

The next day Shadow and Knuckles met up with Eggman in his interstitial space. There weren´t only all the monitors for the cameras on the bases' island but also monitors for Eggmans' mobil surveillance cameras and one was just showing the blue hedgehog run carefree and not expecting a thing. Shadow and Knuckles stood behind Eggman, who was watching that one monitor.

"…are you two ready?" he asked without turning around.

"Yes" the two of them answered at the same time.

"Then go and hunt him down… you know the coordinates… don´t disappoint me" he said.

And with that Shadow and Knuckles turned around and left the room. At the same time Sonic ran through the nature and enjoyed the fresh headwind. It always calmed him down. A calm smile was seen on his lips as he ran. Though he looked quite happy on the outside, he was still very worried about his two friends on the inside. It's been a very long time since the last time he had seen them but hope didn´t want to leave his heart. If there was one thing sure then it was that Shadow and Knuckles aren´t easily killed. He knew they would come back some day. He just knew it.

Little did he know that just those two were coming back sooner than he thought. At the very same moment Shadow and Knuckles stood on a hill watching the blue hedgehog run in their direction, not expecting a thing. They looked at each other and started to move themselves. When a feeling of getting watched overcame the blue blur, he was pulled away from the thoughts he just had and perked his ears up. While he ran he looked around but couldn´t spot anyone. Suddenly one of his ears twitched into a certain direction and when he turned his head towards that, he saw a few spears made out of chaos energy shoot right at him. His eyes widened and jumped away just in time, making the spears hit nothing but the ground.

"What the?" Sonic questioned himself as he landed and looked at the spot that got hit. "Wait…. Those looked like…"

Sonic couldn´t finish his trail of thoughts because he heard a few cracks that where coming from the same direction the attack came from. As he turned his head towards the noise he couldn´t be more surprised at who he saw standing there. Rubbing his eyes to make sure he didn´t see wrong, before looking again. And indeed, his eyes did not fool him.

"Shadow?! Knuckles?!" he said at first in disbelieve.

The two however did not answer him and only had their eyes on the blue hedgehog. A sigh in relief left Sonics' throat and started to walk towards them. Happiness overcame him when he saw his two friends unharmed, standing in front of him.

"Oh my gosh, you guys! Don´t shock me like that!~ Where have you been this last few weeks? I was already worried for your sake. By the way, Shadow… was the chaos spear really necessary as a greeting? A simple "Jo" would have done it as well" Sonic said happily.

While he was talking like that, Shadow and Knuckles were only silently starring at him. Not giving a single reaction to everything he said. Noticing that Sonic stopped walking towards them. His smile vanished as well. Their cold stares made him feel very uncomfortable and even take a step back.

"Are…. Are you guys like… alright…?" was all Sonic managed to say because right when he wanted to continue, Knuckles rushed towards him and rammed his knee into the blue hedgehogs' stomach with full force.

This came so out of nowhere for Sonic that he had no time to react and got send back quite some distance. Landing on his back the blue blur coughed hard and gasped for air. While holding his stomach he slowly sat up and groaned in pain. Having his teeth gritted, he looked over to Shadow and Knuckles who only gave him cold glares.

"W-what the heck, Knuckes… What was that for..?!" Sonic demanded to know.

Instead of an answer to his question all he got was the black-red hedgehog now coming at him. Seeing that Sonic didn´t lose any time and got out of the way as fast as he could. When Shadow missed him he turned towards him and shot Chaos Spear right after him, leaving Sonic no time to rest. Confused Sonic looked at Shadow as he dodged all of his Chaos Spears. As a result to Sonics confused state, the hedgehog let his guard down and even forgot that Shadow wasn´t his only problem. At the same moment Shadow attacked Sonic, Knuckles was moving behind his opponent to get ready for another move. Noticing this too late, all Sonic saw, when he turned towards him, was fist going right for his face. This hit him once again with full force which made him yelp out in pure pain once again. Due the red echidnas strength, Sonic got smacked back, hitting the ground multiple time before stopping when he came in contact with a tree. More groans of pain left his throat when he finally halted. His ears perked up though when he heard Shadow and Knuckles coming closer.

"Hm… pathetic… just like the doctor said" he heared Shadow say.

Despite the pain Sonic looked up wide eyed and looked at the two others in shock.

"Wait a second… you're with Eggman?!" he shouted out in shock and disbelieve.

On the other hand Shadow and Knuckles only raised their eyebrows. Sonics' shocked outburst was confusing them slightly.

"Why are you surprised, Sonic the Hedgehog? Shouldn´t you of all people know best about it?" Knuckles growled coldly at the speedster.

"I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about?! What did Eggman do to you two?!" Sonic yelled at them and sat up, making a fist in anger.

His try to sit up was in vain as Shadow put his foot on Sonics stomach to push him back down roughly. Another groan left him as he looked up at them and folded his ears back angrily. Green orbs met cold purple and red ones and those gave him shivers down his spine as he never saw them this cold before.

"Oh…. He did nothing… except help us recover from the immoral thing you have done to us…"

"I did nothing to you!" Sonic yelled at them as he tried to lift Shadows foot off his stomach so he could get up but all he earned was being stepped on even harder.

"Don´t play stupid with us, you blue rat! told us everything, so don´t bother to even try talking yourself out!" Knuckles growled at him dangerously.

The poor blue hedgehog had absolutely no idea what was going on with those two. What did Eggman do to them to make them act so cold towards him? And most off all, what were they talking about? What should he have done to them? Besides teasing his rivals at times. But that was all he had 'done' to them. He assumed they talked about an event where Sonic harmed them. Physically harmed the both of them but he never did such a thing. He never hurt them except out of self-defence. Shadow put a hand on Knuckles shoulder to calm him down what succeeded. With s sigh Knuckles calmed down from his slight outburst. Shadow then turned his attention back at the blue hedgehog who was still pinned under his foot.

"Anyway… act unknowing as much as you want… we won´t waste any more time with you one that. We just came here to tell you this…." He said and leaned down to Sonics ear.

The closer his dark rival came, the more nervous Sonic got. With a dark and dangerous voice Shadow then started to say something and that gave Sonic another shiver down his spine. At the same time a sweattrop formed on his head.

"We are back….." he started, moving his head to face Sonics'. "…and we are going to make your life a living hell…. From here on out!"

To be continued…


	7. Chapter 7

Lost Memories Chap 7

Using his incredible sound barrier breaking speed, Sonic ran back to his and his little brothers' house. Shock was written all over his face after finally seeing his lost two friends again which turned out to be an encounter between him and his fellow rivals. It wasn´t the fact that they were there to kick his butt that shocked him the most. At times they tended to do this on daily basis. No. The thing that made his jaw drop was, that they came in Eggmans' name for him, which does not only mean that they want to see his blood spit all over the ground but also, and that was the main point, that they worked with or for his arch enemy. Not only that but also a big question popped up. Well, actually two. They first one would be what Eggman did to them. The second… How on EARTH did the doctor get Shadow to follow his orders for no reason other than to beat the living hell out of him? Sonic didn´t really question about Knuckles. It wouldn´t be the first time. But Shadow? He normally isn´t one who believes things easily. Something was fishy. Very, very fishy.

Several minutes later Sonic arrived at his house, almost storming inside. Good thing the door wasn´t locked or it would have either hurt or the impact would have caused the door to break. After entering his house, Sonic called out for Tails. When he didn´t get anything back after the first call, the blue blur called for him a few more times. Tails still didn´t reply what made Sonic wonder if his little brother was even home. This however was proven wrong after a belated "I'm here" from the two tailed fox. Without losing time Sonic followed the kids' voice and found him on the computer, playing some games with his headset wrapped around his neck. Easy to guess that the young fox didn´t hear him at first because of said headset. His blue eyes were fixed on the screen but still made a greeting gesture with his head. As if Sonic couldn´t understand how his best friend could be so calm at this circumstances, he looked at him almost shocked. It wasn´t like Tails could possible know about what happened yet. Beside this the hedgehogs shocked face was still from the event with Shadow and Knuckles.

"Tails, you will never guess who I just saw a few minutes ago!" Sonic said with a louder voice than he intended to do. Before continuing, he probably wanted to get Tails' attention.

"Shadow and Knuckles?" the yellow fox replied blank, seemingly indifferent, without looking at his friend.

"No! Shadow and Kn-" the blue hero stopped midsentence after his brain realised that Tails had guessed right. That was definitely something Sonic did not see coming. "Wait… how do you know that?"

The boy turned towards the speedster and tilted his head slightly. His innocent blue eyes met with the emerald green orbs of Sonic, who was waiting for an answer. In this short moment Tails had to doubt if Sonic was thinking clearly. Probably not or else he wouldn´t be this stunned of the yellow boys' indeed true guess. Tails was by far the smartest of Sonics' friends, so he shouldn´t be this surprised to tell the truth. Beside the fact that he knows Tails like no other. Lucky for Tails that he also knows Sonic very well. Sometimes even better than the hedgehog knew himself. And exactly that kept his astonishment to a minimum.

"Well… it is pretty obvious, if you ask me. Why else would you storm into the house like that?" he explained while tilting his head to the other side. "Besides… those marks on your body don´t exactly look like you stumbled over something that caused you to fall on the ground"

With that being said Sonic looked at all those nasty injuries he got from Shadow and Knuckles. It weren´t major ones and to be honest, both of his rivals hurt him far worse than this already. A few of those marks still hurt none the less though not that much. With a deep sigh, Sonic then turned away from Tails while scratching his head in thought. To say the least, the blue hedgehog didn´t really know where to start. This situation made Sonic unable to put two and two together. He just didn´t understand what was going on. That's why it took him a moment to gather his thought and find the best way to start. A slight concerned look took places on Tails' face as he watched Sonic. This was one of those rare moments his best friend was in, if I can even call it that, "shock state" where he had to find the right words to begin. Normally Sonic was, like almost everywhere, fast with those kind of things. The yellow fox then stood up and went up to his idol.

"You… don´t exactly look like a person who just found two long lost friends again…" He started while his face got even more worried now. "What happened?"

Another sigh left Sonics' throat. It took him another moment before he turned towards Tails with a worried gaze himself.

"Tails… Something is clearly wrong…" Sonic began and for an answer he got a confused 'huh?' from his smaller buddy.

Tails face got even more concern now. Clearly something was wrong with their two long missed friends, which isn´t hard to guess. In the time Sonic paused however, Tails imagination took the most terrible imaginations he was able to come up with. Like them have become zombies or lost one of their limbs, being mutilated or anything similar to that. On the other hand he tried to calm himself from those kind of thought and also took a mental note to stop playing zombie or horror games. His still young brain got way to creative with those things lately. For once he should listen to Sonic when it comes to those games. Step on the brakes. He assumed whatever Sonic was going to tell him about them, it surely wasn´t something as bad as them turning into zombies. The time all those thought ran through Tails head felt like an infinity to the young fox. In reality only a few seconds passed before Sonic continued. He would have done so sooner, but he was merely distracted by how Tails began to stare at him in those few seconds. Guessing by his look, it was clear that he started to imagine the possibilities of his bad news. Sonic really needed to take care of those games soon or later. With a short shake of his head, to get himself back to the actual topic, he then looked at Tails once again.

"Shadow and Knuckles are with Eggman" the blue hedgehog then finally finished.

The concern look of Tails immediately vanished and a surprised and shocked gaze took place instead. From all things his mind came up with, that wasn´t one of them. An incredulous "what?!" left the foxes' mouth fast. No wonder that Sonic was so shocked himself when he came back.

"Are you kidding?" Tails added a few seconds of disbelieve later.

"I am not! And believe me, I had the same reaction as you. At first I thought they wanted to kick my butt for bringing them into the situation of Eggman kidnapping them. Guess I was very wrong. They did that because Eggman ordered them to!" the blue blur explained with clenched fists followed by gritted teeth.

"But… but how? Why would they? Does Eggman control them?"

"I don´t know, but… they didn´t look like Eggman attached something on them that makes them obey to his will… More like they did this… voluntary" Sonic told him with a low and controlled voice.

After this information, a slight frown appeared on Tails' forehead. It's not a mystery that Knuckles and Shadow are sometimes not very fond of the blue blur, but they would never try to harm him unless Sonic annoys them to a certain degree. Shadow was more of a person who avoids unnecessary fights while Knuckles starts to attack when his temper kicks in or his pride was stepped on in a hard way. But other than that also he tried to safe his strength for more important events. Long story short, both normally only use violence when it was really necessary. Not counting the battles they got into when they were on each others throats all the time. Shadow was the one to blame for those as he provoked Knuckles until his temper got the better of him. This way the dark hedgehog had an excuse to hurt Knuckles with self-defence. Everyone knew that Shadow only did that to provoke a fight though. The red streaked hedgehog didn´t even deny it. Getting his trail of thought interrupted when Sonic attempted to continue, Tails then gave him his fullest attention again.

"It was very odd anyway… When I met them, they acted like we would be enemies for like years or something… But… that's not what concerns me the most…" the blue one continued and looked at his younger friend with a slight frown himself. "What concerns me the most is… that they acted like… they didn´t remember all the things we have gone through together"

Yellow ears where perking after Sonic said the last part, which made a thought pop up in Tails mind right away.

"You mean like amnesia?" the two tailed fox suggested.

"That could be a possibility. I mean… when I first went up to them with open arms and being happy to see them being alright, they didn´t really look confused… however, when Shadow stated that the doctor was right about me, for whatever reason, and I naturally was all shocked about that, then they seemed confused as well. As if they questioned themselves why in the world I don´t know that" the blue hedgehog pointed out while crossing his arms in thought.

If anything this was actually more talking to himself than talking to Tails. Midsentence Sonic started to wonder if this really could be the case. A lot of things pointed towards it but he couldn´t be really sure yet. He had only met them once and for all he knew, Eggman could still be blackmailing them somehow so they only act the way they did. Thoughts got interrupted when Tails stated that this does sound like amnesia to him.

"Well… whatever it is true or not, next time I meet them, I will try to talk to them. If I get them to listen, then maybe they will get their remembrance back. And then… I don´t really have to take care of Eggman myself" he chuckled slightly while saying the last sentence.

Sonic could literally see them chasing the doctor in rage for using them like this. Like a movie the scene played in the blue heroes mind what caused him to chuckle even more. Also the yellow fox had to giggle a little at that thought. Until another more serious thought interrupted this funny one. The giggling disappeared almost instantly. Taking note of this, Sonic looked at Tails once more while he tilted his head slightly to the side at the same time.

"What's the matter?"

"You know what irritates me a little? If Shadow and Knuckles really do this voluntary… why didn´t they finish you off when you ran into them?" Tails asked while tilting his head. Of course he didn´t wanted that his best friend got killed, but he couldn´t help but wonder.

With a few blinks at first, but then turning away slightly, Sonic thought about this. To be honest, he hadn´t noticed that until Tails mentioned it. Holding his chin in thought, his mind went back to when Shadow got him pinned down with his foot. If Shadow really have wanted, he could have easily killed him in that moment of defencelessness. Yet he didn´t and Knuckles also didn´t make a move of further violence against him. Only after his dark furred main rival threated him to making his life hell from now on, they started to play football with him again. Sounds more fun than it was, since Sonic had the honour to be the ball. This was almost as worse as getting hit by Amys' hammer. Slowly his eyes started to wander over his body in order to look at all the injuries he got from his rivals. They certainly could have done so much worse, but they didn´t… almost as if…

At this very moment something made click in Sonics mind. Moving his gaze back up, he frowned another time.

"I'm not completely sure but…" The attention of Tails was drawn right back at Sonic after he began to speak. He saw him looking at one of his, with cuts overdrawn, arms. "Thinking back… it doesn´t feel like they wanted to see me dead. Yet at least. It actually felt more… like Eggman wanted to inform me, that he is going to play with me. A game of who lasts longer and I can see that taunting grin of his as if he was standing right in front of me!"

Clenching his fist, a low growl escaped the blue ones throat. Tails on the other hand lowered his ears a little. Predicting Dr. Eggmans' plans was something Sonic learned to be good at after all those years in fighting him. But also natural worry for his big brother came along, even though Tails knew that Sonic is far from being easily defeated. However… fighting his two biggest rivals at the same time? Tails wasn´t sure if Sonic could handle them alone in a long run. Especially when they learn how to work as a team. Soon or later the fast blue hedgehog will need help but thanks Chaos Tails knew well enough who would be a good edition for cases like this.

Speaking about the two devils that just accomplished what they were ordered to do, they chaos controlled back from the spot the faced their blue enemy for the first time. Both hoped that Eggman was satisfied with their work and made their way back to the bald mans' interstitial space. They knew he was watching all along. Though they themselves were pretty satisfied with their first mission, slight confusion surrounded them. Although they didn´t show it much in front of Sonic, they couldn´t deny that his shocked and unsuspecting reaction irritated them a lot. The walk up to the human lay in quite uncomfortable silence. For the first time in weeks. Each of them frowning and in their own thoughts. After almost half the way up to Eggman was done, Knuckles glanced at the hedgehog beside him who had his gaze lowered on the ground. The red echidna then decided to break this awful silence.

"…hey, Shadow?"

With a "Hm?" the dark hedgehog lifted his head to look at his companion.

"Does Sonics' reaction about our appearance confuse you as well?" He questioned Shadow who was turning his head more into Knuckles' direction after asking him.

"You too?" he replied with a raised eyebrow and got a nod from the taller red male.

To say this was only confusing would be a great understatement. A better description would be, it completely getting them out of concept. Odd enough that Sonic first went up to them and greeted them happily. Like they would be on the same side. What got them to be this irritated, was the fact that the blue hedgehog was completely surprised when they first said Eggmans' name. Like he was absolutely not aware of them being his enemies. This would also explain why he was too stunned to fight back properly. It seemed like his mind was taken over by shock and surprise as a whole. Both had expected an entire different reaction as soon as the blue one saw it was them. If anything, they thought he would become defensive immediately, fight back or even run off. Anything they had expected but the way he actually acted. Something was far from right and they were going to find out what. Shadow and Knuckles wanted an explanation. And they wanted it now! After a short view exchange, they continued their way to the room Dr. Eggman was in. Their faces serious and determined to find out what the meaning behind all this was.

Soon they reached the door and shortly they glanced at each other before finally entering. Inside the room, Eggman was sitting on his armchair with his back facing them, starring at all the screens with a wide grin spread over his face. With interest and slight glee he watched his two allies go after his arch nemesis. He absolutely loved that stunned face Sonic wore when Shadow and Knuckles announced that they were coming in his name. But as much as he enjoyed this show, he knew there was a slight problem coming along the start of his game. Hearing the door behind him open, he lifted his head slightly. Standing in the room now, the two quilled creatures' eyes lay on the chair, silently and with serious expressions, waiting for the man to turn around. Though the scientist knew that he could get into deep trouble with making the slightest mistake now, he couldn´t help but grin even wider. There was enough confidence in his own acting skills and plan, that made him stay calmer than he probably should. After all, if he really fails at being plausible now, there was a high chance this would end badly for him.

"Ah, Shadow. Knuckles. Welcome back" they heard the doctor talk with obvious joy shortly before he turned around with his armchair. With one leg crossed over the other and intertwined fingers the man with the moustache looked at his two smaller companions. "I'm really satisfied with your achievement. Good work" he praised them with his grin still as wide as before.

Shadow and Knuckles didn´t reply to his praising however. Keeping their expressions unmoved by the positive words they just got gifted, all they did was only looking at the tall human. The grin on Eggmans' face slowly faded and a questioning gaze replaced it instead. Of course the doctor knew exactly what was going on, but he had to keep his act perfectly for them to not become even more sceptical.

"What's the matter?"

"Why was Sonic acting like he had no idea what in the world was going on?!" the dark furred hedgehog said harshly, almost cutting his so called boss off.

Shadows', just like Knuckle' eyes narrowed a lot. It was clear they wanted to know. They looked demanding. Instantly. Hidden under his dark glasses, Eggmans' eyes met with the burning red eyes of the hedgehog. Perhaps it was an advantage for him to have glasses as it is a lot easier to keep a neutral face when his eyes aren´t visible. Slowly he leaned forward so that his elbows rested on his thighs. His fingers were still intertwined while he did so.

"What are you implying? That I deceive you?" he asked, keeping his voice calm and controlled.

"Perhaps?" Knuckles answered, while his expression got more and more sceptical.

Silence took place in the room when both sides did nothing expect looking at each other. The air got heavier the more time passed. But slowly and at first barely hearable, a chuckle paved its way through the unbearable noiselessness. With the time it got louder and louder. Obviously it was the doctor who laughed. It was hard to overlook at the way his body moved due the laughing. Confused looks replaced the sceptical gazes of Shadow and Knuckles when Eggman suddenly started to chuckle in amusement. Their eyes met in astonishment before they turned their attention back at the scientist. Right in this moment Eggman leaned back and moves one of his hands to his forehead to cover it.

"Oh Sonic… you cheeky little rat! I should have known that you are trying to pull an act!" Dr. Eggman admitted loudly while still chuckling.

After hearing this sentence, both of the other two raised an eyebrow. Sonic only acted like that? It certainly didn´t look like he did and Shadow like Knuckles told this the other right away. How in the world should the blue hedgehog even have the knowledge, of them having amnesia, to come up with something like acting? Eggman looked at them for a short while before standing up. One arm behind his back and with the other stroking his moustache, he then turned away from them to look at his monitors again.

"Well, if you two really seek for an explanation, then I will gladly give you one" the doctor announced while tipping something on the keyboard. "You know… Sonic has a friend who can unfortunately keep up with my intelligence and even though I didn´t see it coming, he could have done the math to find out how high the chance would be for you two to get amnesia. It wouldn´t even be that much off, if you think about that. You both where trapped in a life threatening situation involving extreme heat… twice. Enough to activate the defence mechanism in your brains"

"For both of us at the same time?" Knuckles questioned while turning his head slightly away and narrowing his eyes.

"Indeed the chance for that to happen is very low, but as you both know, it did. Everything is possible, it says. So they probably made up a plan for that _just in case_ it was true. To make you doubt me"

While Eggman still input something into the computer, the quilled ones exchanged views once again. Right now they had a hard time to not doubt him, but at the same time they couldn´t be sure if it was true or not.

"But… how should he know? We didn´t exactly reacted to his happy attitude to see us" Shadow stated while moving his eyes away from Knuckles and to the human.

"That's what you think. In fact, you did. Only slightly but you did. I saw it. You looked confused for a short time and that gave him enough information to know what was going on. Sadly Sonic isn´t stupid. I have to give him that" Eggman explained and finally pressed enter what made the picture of a young, yellow, two tailed fox appear on one of the screens.

Almost instantly the hedgehogs and the echidnas' attention was drawn towards the new image. Knuckles frowned while Shadow raised an eyebrow. Why was Eggman showing them that?

"Who's that?" both asked contemporaneous.

"That is Miles Prower. Also called Tails. He is the friend I was talking about before" Dr. Eggman said and turned back to them.

"That is him?" Shadow voiced in disbelieve. "… It's kind of implausible for a _kid _to keep up with your HQ, doctor"

The dark hedgehog crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at the human. At first watching Shadow but then turning his eyes to Eggman as well, Knuckles nodded in agreement. A sigh left the mans' throat.

"That is coming from an on two feet running, talking hedgehog who is holding the power to destroy whole buildings with his powers?" he sarcastically replied only to get a displeased snort from said dark hedgehog in return. Lowering his eyes Shadow had to admit, that Eggman got a point. "And as I said before… everything is possible"

And after that being said, Shadow clenched his fist and turned away. Even with his then closed eyes he could tell that he earned a worried look from Knuckles. But either way, he could also tell that his red friend was just as torn apart on the inside as he was. What should he believe? What was true now? Was Sonics acting really fake? As long as they lived on the island, so far Eggman never made a move to harm them. In fact, he treated them friendly, daring to say, almost like family. There were even times where they could joke around with him, as strange as it seems. They learned how to respect him and went even as far as to trust him in this time since they woke up. Maybe they were overreacting. Doubting all the trust they gained for him over the weeks by the few minutes of acting unknowing from a person they practically just met? After all, what Eggman said made sense. Bizarre but it made sense. On the other hand however, Sonic should know them for a long time as well. But then again, what IF Eggman was right with him only acting? It was all just so confusing! With having all this thought at the same time, a bad headache took over Shadows' brain. Gritting his teeth hard and covering his head with both of his hands to try to suppress the headache while pinning his ears flat on his head. A pained groan left his mouth. That didn´t stay unnoticed by Knuckles who was supporting Shadow right away so he won´t fall on his knees.

"Shadow, what's wrong?" the red echidna asked with concern.

To say the least. Also Knuckles had his doubts but they seemed by far not as worse as the hedgehogs. His built up trust in Eggman was stronger than the confusion and doubt he had when they first arrived. Unknown to him that was the cause of him still being very gullible. For Eggman it was clear that Knuckles would be less of a problem when it comes to making them fall for his act. He managed to do that so many times while Knuckles was his enemy. Shadow was a whole different story as he was probably the most sceptical person he had ever met in his life. But remembering the time where Shadow already suffered from amnesia once, where he was torn apart between so many different stories, what he should believe, what was true or false, who he should turn to in the end… he fell for a lot of lies back then, including the doctors, until he finally uncovered the truth. Let's just say, the scientist was certain he could achieve that again. Even more easily if he plays the cards right. And to him it looked like Shadow was merely half a step away from believing him fully. He just had to convince him a little more somehow. Anyway, while Knuckles tried to comfort Shadow, Eggman slowly went up to them and gently put one hand on one shoulder of each of them. Turning the gazes back, they looked up at the tall man.

"You see what he is doing? Sonic is messing with your heads. Don´t believe anything he says. He is just trying to find weak spots. Don´t forget who left you to die…" he said in an almost gently tone.

Head lowered in a shameful way followed by slow nods.

"We understand… I'm sorry we were doubting you, doctor…" Knuckles spoke for them both when he gave Shadow support who still suffered from that headache.

He was very grateful for Knuckles to give him support and talk for him as well. If the echidna decided to let go of him now, there was no other way for Shadow then to fall on his knees. For the talking part, his headache was so bad that he would probably not even get a straight sentence out. With a slight worried look, but still wearing a gentle smile, the doctor looked at his smaller allies and decided to give the suffering Shadow the light pet on the head. Normally the dark hedgehog would have hissed him off but right now he didn´t even bother. If he even noticed it due the pain.

"Maybe you should go and take a rest, Shadow" he suggested.

A small, barely visible nod was his answer. Knuckles, who noticed it to the hedgehogs luck, was giving him even more support and slowly leaded him out of the room in order to get him to their room. Shadow leaned slightly more against the echidna when they started to walk. Who could have known that a headache could be THIS bad? As soon as the two quilled creatures where out of the room, an evil grin appeared on Dr. Eggmans' face. Just like before the two came back. A low chuckle found its way out from the man as well. This all was just going according to plan and he was very proud of it. He was going to have so much fun with torturing Sonic like this. The game he let Sonic and them unwillingly join was getting more and more interesting. And it pretty much just started, but from the looks of it, the madman had the upper head ever since it began.

To be continued…


	8. Chapter 8

Lost Memories Chap 8

Soon Shadow and Knuckles reached their room. The time, they needed to get from Eggman back here, didn´t help the bad headache Shadow suffered from at all. His roommate still needed to support him from falling to his knees, while his own hand covered his forehead as attempt to ease the pain a little. Though the effort was futile. Groans of pain echoed through the hallways. And now the room. Once they got to the bed, Knuckles carefully helped Shadow onto it. The poor hedgehog looked extremely exhausted from the aching and took the chance to rest with great gratitude. He thanked his red friend for the help, earning a "You're welcome" in return. After a small pet on the head, which was giving from Knuckles to Shadow, the red guardian sat on the edge of the bed, letting out a deep sigh. With barely half open red eyes, he was studied.

A minute of silence passed until Knuckles stood back up to leave, so that the dark furred hedgehog can rest properly. Tired eyes opened a little more when the echidna started to move away. There was a question inside of Shadows' mind that he needed to ask, but he wasn´t sure if his head would let him. There was only one way to find out though. Shadow sat up just a little, so he could look better at his friend. He called out Knuckles' name and the almost at the door standing red echidna halted, but didn´t turn around. There was another moment of silence.

"….are you as torn apart on the inside as I am?" Shadow asked in an unsure tone.

Knuckles didn´t answer right away. Instead he took his time to think about the dark hedgehogs' question. Slowly he turned his body to look at his older roommate with a slight unknowing expression. A sigh left his throat.

"Honesty… I don´t know what I should believe right now or not…" he stated, earning an understanding, slow nod from the other. With that being said he turned back to the door to leave Shadow to his deserved rest.

Meanwhile in the room where the two of them last saw Eggman, the mad scientist sat in his chair and thought about the conversation he just had with them. In silence he watched the two talk to each other with the help of his camera that he had placed in their room. It wasn´t hard to tell what they talked about. The fact that Sonic could make them easily doubt, bothered the bald man quite a lot. He really needed to think about a way to make them trust him more, than Sonic could make them doubt. The question was just how he would accomplish that. Eggman was sure that Shadow and Knuckles trusted him with his story for now, but still he needed to figure something out just to be safe.

While he was deep in thoughts, his two robot companions came to bring him dinner. Both were slightly surprised, when they found their creator like this. But they were even more surprised by the fact that didn´t snarl at them for their rather loud entrance like normally. This only happened if there was something going on, Eggman was not okay with. But instead of asking what happened, their experience told them to better be silent this time. When the doctor was this deep in thoughts, he hated to be disturbed. His hatred for this was almost as big as his hatred for his blue arch enemy. A lot of robots already found their path to the scrapyard this way. They surely knew better than this and left as fast as they came. Eggman however had other plans as he did notice them.

"Orbot. Cubot." he called out, causing his robots to freeze in place.

Slowly both of them turned around, with slight fear that the man was going to scrap them for disturbing. "Y-yeah, boss?" the robots replied at the same time.

"I need you two to do something"

With him saying this, Orbot and his yellow friend turned around, completely in surprise. Their expectation luckily didn´t turn out the way they had thought. If Orbot could sigh, he would have done so at this very moment. The little red robot then spoke for the both of them. "That would be, Doctor?"

"I need you two to watch Sonic closely. I want to know everything he does, so I can plan on sending Shadow and Knuckles next after him" he commanded, while stroking through his moustache with two fingers. His eyes didn´t leave once the monitors in his front.

"How do you expect us to do this, Boss?" Orbot questioned carefully.

"Just send the nano spy-bots after him. That should do. Keep me updated then" the mad scientist commanded and crossed his arms behind his back.

Easy to see that part of ' plan was to stalk Sonic like a prey. The two robot sidekicks did how they were told and sent dozens of spy robots out to observe the blue hedgehog and also his friends. Though the scientist had only very little interest in them. None of them was strong enough to be a true risk for him. Apart from merely a handful. But since two of them are his subordinates for some time now, he didn´t worry too much about the others. Shadow and Knuckles sure are a very, very helpful and powerful addition.

But also Orbot and Cubot made clear to be very useful creations the following weeks, much to the doctors' delight. They did a great job in keeping him updated to what Sonic was up to. Always informing him when his arch nemesis was alone, so he could send countless robot henchman after the blue hedgehog. Those were times where Eggman certainly did not regret building his little assistants. In situations like this, Orbot and Cubot came in pretty handy. After all machines like them have no need for sleep or food. Though, being able to feel emotions and feelings like boredom may be a problem here and there.

Every time he send his inventions after Sonic, Eggman watched with glee how the blue boy was doing against them. At first Sonics' enthusiasm to kick metallic butts was great and his cockiness unsurpassed, but the more time passed the more the tall human could tell, that Sonic grew annoyed. That his robots weren´t a match for the blue blur, was something the doctor was very much aware of, but everything he did was part of something much greater. Slowly it was time for the next step. And that step would start with Shadow and Knuckles going after Sonic again. Of course there came risks with this, since their trust was still cracked in after last time they met their blue opponent. Eggman could tell by their slight different acting. But how does it say? No risk, no fun. After calling the quilled ones and discussing the plan with them, both agreed to follow the scientists' instructions. Unknown to them, their so called boss could easily see their doubt, but he shrugged it off either way. Certainly confidence didn´t allow otherwise. And Sonic wouldn´t know what hit him.

Speaking about the blue hedgehog, he was doing another run. Of course, what else would have anyone expected? However, instead of his normally carefree appearance, annoyance was written all over his face. Over the last few weeks, about every second day, Baldy McNosehair sent who knows how many robots after him. And those weren´t even a challenge. At first he didn´t care much about them. Doing his job, Sonic easily scraped them. Part of him always hoped every time for Eggman to have made a mistake, so he would get a hint to where he could find his base to get Shadow and Knuckles back. Sadly every time without success. Realising his enemy wouldn´t grant him this favour, he just grew annoyed and frustrated whenever he saw this rather weak machines coming his way. For him they were a waste of his time. In all honesty he didn´t even had the slightest idea why Eggman even bothered with them. Why didn´t he just send his rivals in? At least they could achieve what he truly wanted. As for Sonic, it would save time and nerves to look for them.

Today was another day where Eggman would send a pair of tin cans. The main reason for the hedgehogs' slight annoyed appearance. Truly he absolutely didn´t feel like dealing with them anymore. With a sigh he looked around, already expecting them to show up any second. Eggman just got so predictable, or at least that was what his mind was telling him. But then there came something he definitely did not expected. Out of nowhere Chaos Spears raced towards him, leaving no time to react. Not even enough for Sonic who took the attack almost directly. A surprised and pained yelp filled the air, as he was hit back by the impact. With gritted teeth Sonic just managed to curl up into a ball after his first contact with the ground. Ending up on his knees, he stopped a few meter from where the attack managed to hit him. The track of his throwback clearly visible on the muddy terrain. With slight hesitation the blue hedgehog looked up, seeing a silhouette coming closer through the dust.

Out of the dust the dark hedgehog slowly came, his red orbs fixed on the, on the ground kneeling, blue hedgehog. If this wouldn´t have come so out of nowhere for Sonic, he would be actually glad to see Shadow again, but that Chaos Spear was far from a warning shot, unlike the one of their last encounter. Slow and steady he tried to stand up, which came out to be rather difficult. His stomach ached pretty much from that one hit alone. But it wasn´t enough to bring him down. Soon he was back on his feet, growling at his older rival warningly. That however left Shadow pretty cold as he wasn´t giving the slightest reaction. Instead he just moved his hand back to quickly draw it forward, shooting once again his Chaos Spears at him. Sonic didn´t lose any time and dodged them before they came even in reach. After getting some distance to Shadow, the fast blue boy charged up his own running speed to knock the older hedgehog down and hopefully unconscious from the impact. Though he should have gotten a fishy feeling when Shadow didn´t move one single inch, when Sonic ran right up to him. He welcomed this chance highly, which was a fatal mistake. Shortly before he collided with the other, Knuckles came out from behind Shadow with quite high tempo himself, ready for a rock breaking punch. In his already charged running, all Sonic could do was widening his eyes at the sudden intruder. He was too fast to retard which caused him to be helplessly exposed to the red echidna. The speed of Sonics' running, combined with the pace Knuckles' fist had, created a force so strong that a normal creature had only very low chances to survive. With wide green eyes, Sonic didn´t even realized what was happening when air literally got punched out of him. He couldn´t even muster enough to yell out in agony. The only thing he did know, was being suddenly stopped by a hard surface. Just then pained yells filled the air.

Once more the blue hedgehog was lying on the ground. With gritted teeth and into fists clenched hands, he tried to lift himself at least on his knees. Carefully he opened one eye just to get greeted by a red liquid that was dropping out of his mouth. After realizing that it was his blood, his gaze raised to check on where the other two were. And they went up to him. In this brief moment, Sonic understood what Eggman had planned. For the last couple weeks his enemy send dozens of rather weak robots to fight him, making him unknowingly used to their strength. Without warning he then sent out Shadow and Knuckles which had a complete different level of power. And for that kind of power Sonic was definitely out of shape. Without realizing it, Eggman got him into a routine. This shocking cognition made the blue hedgehog pretty much jump up. Turned out to be a bad idea since his stomach and back ached like they never had before. If at least a few ribs weren´t broken, then someone up there must really like him. A pained groan left his mouth.

Though he hated to admit but the doctor sure got him good this time. In his current state that he got so easily into thanks to his rivals, he knew that he had no chance against them. This fact pissed him. Mostly because he made the mistake to underestimate Shadow and Knuckles. Of all people. A lot of options for Sonic to pick weren´t there. Now he could either try to get the heck away from them or stay and try to talk to them again, though he would probably get his ass kicked even more. The cowardly way however, was never Sonics' way. So obviously the second option was his thing to pick. Knowing the blue blur, he couldn´t hold himself back from making a cocky comment.

"Aw shucks, you guys. You really never miss out on a _breath taking_ greeting, huh?" he grinned as if nothing just happened a few moments ago.

At this obvious pun, his two rivals stopped just to shoot him confused looks. Sonic himself was rather surprised by their reactions.

"Did he just…." Shadow began but finished in thoughts.

"Hey! If you make fun of us, then I will punch more out of you than just air!" Knuckles snarled, lifting up his fists as a warning.

Though the blue hero shouldn´t be relieved right now, it was good to know that, whatever Eggman had done to them, they were still themselves. Despite being on Egsgmans' side and seemingly friends now. Last point could be seen as positive though.

Sonic panted slightly and held his rib area with his left arm. They hurt badly. A few of them were broken for sure. Sonic can´t say he was surprised. After all, he knows Knuckles' strength better than anyone else. Another blow like that, be it Knuckles _or _Shadow, and the blue blur has a very big problem. Fighting wasn´t an option anymore after this fatal mistake. Despite the red echidnas' threat, Sonic started smiling. An honest smile. Seeing that made the other two look at each other in confusion.

"… you almost said the exact thing once, Knux. Heh, and then you chased me around because I countered with another joke" Sonic joked. "Don´t you remember?"

"The heck are you talking about?" Knuckles questioned.

"I am talking about them times before all of this! Dunno what Eggster did to you but this isn´t you! You aren´t on his side and I will make you two remember again!" Sonic said in a serious matter.

While the blue hedgehog tried to talk his way through to them, Shadow was far from playing along. He poked Knuckles, who seemed to be in a mix of confusion and annoyance, in the ribs to get his attention. When he got it, he just silently shook his head as if he want to tell him to stop listening. Knuckles understood. He also knew that, even if Shadow tried to hide it, he still felt a little lost right now as well. But this had to wait. After all, they had a job to do. They didn´t need to get more out of concept than they already were. Soon Shadow focused back on Sonic. He wasn´t a threat right now, and the dark hedgehog knew that. In the blink of an eye the older hedgehog was in front of the younger one, ready to end this fight already. In his shock, Sonic just managed to duck in order to avoid Shadows attack. Their eyes met.

"Less talking more fighting, you imbecile" the dark hedgehog said coldly.

"I **don`t **want to fight you!" Sonic protested with a loud voice.

"Too bad. You don´t have another choice"

With this Shadow started to fight Sonic, but the blue blur was far from trying to fight back. Using his speed he just dodged. His rib area and back hurt too much. Of course the way he handled his dark counterpart hurt immensely as well, but taking one hit would surely hurt far more than this. While Shadow took care of Sonic, Knuckles still stood on his spot. Again he was pulled into doubt. At this moment he didn´t know what he should do. Fight with Shadow or stay back. For him it looked like Sonic really didn´t want to fight them nor being in a situation like this with them. His eyes wandered down on his hand. The hand that caused injury to the blue hedgehog. Soon a deep voice got his attention.

"Knuckles! You gonna join me or what?! Whatever you are thinking about, think it later!" Shadow commanded, not very fond of his partners' inaction.

His doubt forgotten for now, Knuckles closed his hand into a fist. With no time to lose he joined Shadow, making it twice as hard for Sonic to dodge. Well, okay at least three times as hard because his rivals worked as a team. Despite this, Sonic did very well. Even under the pressure of them trying to knock him out and the fact that lack of concentration could cause a mistake, he still tried to talk with them. Things of their past. Things they had experienced together. Things that connected them. To Sonics' luck their blows seem to lose their strength. He could tell they got unsure of what they were doing. The doubt Knuckles had before came back and so did the doubt Shadow tried to forget. The blue hedgehog still had to look out.

Since the beginning of the encounter passed a small period of time. Shadow and Knuckles got Sonic literally standing with his back to a wall. Good thing the blue hedgehog managed to dodge every of the punches, kicks and whatever else they had for him. This came with a price though. His upper body ached even more and exhausted him. The other two didn´t even look near any exhaustion. Sonic had nowhere left to run now. He was literally a hedgehog in a trap. Even though his rivals should feel proud now… they weren´t.

"…come on, guys… it's not too late now. Stop fighting" Sonic slightly groaned out due his hurting body. "Can you really not remember all the times we have fought together? As a team? As friends?"

Silence was the only thing he got as an answer to his questions. Not only that but they also hesitated to attack, even though he was an easy target. Both of them were unsure how to handle this situation. Eggman, who was of course watching everything, slowly got impatient.

"What are you two waiting for!? Attack him!" he commanded over his communicator.

"But… during the whole fight he didn´t even try to fight back…" Knuckles replied unsure. An as unsure Shadow looked first at his red friend but then on his wrist were the communicator was attached to.

"That's because he is too weak! Now finish your job! …or… is he actually getting in your heads?" Eggman questioned sharply, getting more impatient.

"No bu-"

"Then do as I say!"

Of course the doctor would be merciless when it comes to his arch enemy. And just as likely he wouldn´t tolerate any kind of disobedience. He _was _the bad guy after all and he made it as clear as the day. With a sigh Shadow stopped the transmission and turned back to the trapped blue hedgehog. Knuckles crossed his arms and also looked into his direction. That sure as hell was a bad sign.

"Sorry, blue hedgehog. But our commands are as clear as they could possibly be" Shadow said, his voice back into this cold-as-ice tone.

A growl left Sonics' throat. He was so close to getting to them, but all was for nothing. Without losing any more time, Knuckles jumped up in the air while Shadow stayed on the ground. The dark hedgehog started to move towards Sonic, soon curling into a ball, using his spin attack. Knuckles on the other hand started to drill like… well… a drill. Both of them coming towards him with incredible speed and force, leaving no way for Sonic to escape.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit! If I survive this, I swear I will take Amy out on a date!" the speedster thought under stress and adrenaline that caused his heart to beat faster than running could ever make.

Seconds before the impact, sweat was running down Sonics' head. He wasn´t panicked nor did he fear death, but he truly did fear what might happen after this, if he survives. If Eggman would do the same to him like he did to them? If there was one thing he really didn´t want, then was it to fight his friends like the doctor forced Shadow and Knuckles to. Thoughts familiar to this raced through Sonics' head in this few seconds, until his rivals suddenly stopped in the middle of the air and merely half a meter in front of him. Wide-eyed Sonic looked at the floating, spinning/drilling guys in front of him. When they noticed that they didn´t move anymore, they withdrew from their attack, now hanging in the air.

"What?" all three of them asked in more than just confusion.

Suddenly an invisible forced pulled Shadow and Knuckles back, sending them flying crosswise over the ground and into the next trees. Both cried out in pain. This time, they didn´t know what hit them. A still confused Sonic just blinked at what happened a few seconds ago. Until a familiar, calm grey furred hedgehog landed in front of him with crossed arms. After his head turned to face Sonic, a smile greeted him.

"Need a hand?" he asked sounding just a little mockingly, which Sonic really didn´t care about.

"Silver!" he voiced with a touch of relief. "What are you doing here?"

"Well… Tails kinda had a feeling something like this might happen. So he called me just to be sure. Guess he had the right feeling" the younger hero stated.

"Sounds like my bro" Sonic chuckled and rubbed his head.

"Seriously though…. Why didn´t you fight back?"

"Well… Knuckles assumingly broke at least 3 or 4 of my ribs and I don´t know about you but… fight with a few broken bones miiiiiight not be the best idea" the blue hedgehog told him, making his reasons more than just obvious.

"Oh…."

Right in this moment, Shadow and Knuckles came out of the bushes. Some leaves and dirt covered their quills. Dangerous growls came from both of them. Sonic and Silver turned towards them, one getting back into a defensive pose while the other looked rather interesting in why the older ones attacked their rival. Soon enough the chaos benders spotted the grey hedgehog.

"The heck are you?" Shadow growled out, followed by a question that Knuckles hissed out. "Where you the one who just did that?!"

"… care to explain?" Silver asked with a raised eyebrow while looking at Sonic.

"Uh… later, kay?"

Confused red and purple eyes just looked over. Both didn´t like the fact that they got just ignored. Instead of asking again, they went right for another attack. At the same time. Synchronized attacks also meant twice as much power. Well, not in this case. As soon as they were close enough, Silver just froze them mid-air again, leaving them just as dumfounded as before. After Silver told them that this wouldn´t work on him they found themselves getting hit back once again, right after being smashed on the hard ground. This time they didn´t fly as far and were back on their feet a lot faster. Growls were heard once more.

"Hm…. I got you two much stronger in remembrance…" Silver said more as a statement than mockery.

Ones temper didn´t like this statement at all and voiced it loudly.

"I will rip your head of your neck, you brat!" Knuckles yelled pissed and ready to fight the grey intruder. However, his action got cut short by a gloved hand that crossed his way to hold him back.

"Wait. Let's get back to the base" Shadow said, which found no approval in the red echidna.

"What?!"

"We don´t know who this is nor what he can do. It's smarter when we retract" the older one explained with a controlled voice.

"So you just want to flee and leave it like that?!" an angry red echidna voiced.

"A tactical retreat is not a flight, Knuckles!" Shadow stated much sharper than before.

Any protest would be left unheard. Knuckles could tell by the look of Shadows' red orbs. He was very serious. "….fine…" he finally answered, though he really didn´t like it.

A hand moves into black and red quills to pull out a Chaos Emerald. The two other hedgehogs, that were eying them suspiciously, thought at first that they were talking about another tactic to fight Silver. That thought got wrecked when Shadow pulled out the jewel. Widening his green eyes Sonic told Silver to stop them. Turned out it was slightly too late, because right then Shadow shouted out "Chaos Control", making them disappear in a flash of green light.

"…Ah, shoot…" Sonic cursed, causing Silver to look at him and sigh in the same moment.

"Well… that was a bust… but at least I came before they could do more damage to you… what reminds me… Are you okay?" Silver asked with honest concern, since Sonic held his ribs the entire time.

"Oh… don´t worry 'bout me. I'm fine" Sonic started and finished after a loooong and deeeep sigh. "Now that that's taken care of…. Looks like I gotta ask Amy out on a date…"

He looked far from excited. Guessing by the face Silver then made, everyone could tell that he had no clue on why Sonic would say this now of all things.

Back in Eggmans' base, the two slightly injured guys sat in silence in one of the sickrooms. Each in their own thoughts. Their eyes were low on the ground. Small medic-robots took care of them.

"…You know what I don´t get?" Knuckles suddenly asked, breaking the silence in the process. Of course Shadow then looked at him. "Why does Sonic try so hard to befriend us?"

Shadow knew no answer to the question, but he didn´t have to because someone else would answer for him.

"A better question would be… why wouldn´t he?" the voice of an adult human suddenly appeared, making the quilled ones look to the door to see Eggman standing there with both arms behind his back.

"What do you mean..?" Shadow asked in slight confusion.

A smile came to Eggmans' face as he entered the room. "Do you two remember when I said that you used to be friends with him?" A nod from both was his answer. "Well… there was more to that. You were not only friends but also rivals. Huge rivals. You, Shadow, can keep up with Sonics' speed and you are also physically stronger than him. Knuckles, you may not keep up with them when it comes to speed, but…. What you lack on speed, your physical strength make up for it. You are at least twice as strong as Shadow. In a close combat fight, neither of them has a chance against you. Alone each of you is even to him, but together Sonic does not stand a chance against you. And he _knows _that. Of course he would try to befriend you"

Silence spread through the room again, when purple and red eyes met. Soon they moved back on the tall human.

"What about the things he mentioned? Like… Space Colony Ark? Did this events really happen?" Shadow wanted to know.

"… yes. Everything he told you happened. But this events happened years ago. They have no relevance to what he did to you before you started to work for me though. Do you really think that, if he really thought of you as true friends that he would have left you to die?"

Again, nothing but silence. Eggman could only sigh.

"…look you two. I know Sonic made you doubt everything again. After all, your memories don´t seem to come back anytime soon. It's up to you to whatever believe me or him. Just know, that when your memories come back, you will see that _**I **_was the one who was right all along"

That being said, Eggman just turned around and left the two without another word. Just like the last time, Shadow and Knuckles were left torn back and forth. How should they keep on like this with no clear answer? They were sick of trying to find the truth. Eyes were lowered on the floor again for several minutes. Shadows' gaze was the first to lift.

"Hey, Knuckles… can I ask you a question..?" he said, turning the echidnas gaze at him.

"Sure, Shadow…" he answered.

"Before our last attack on Sonic…. You hesitated… you hesitated before as well… did you regret…?"

Knuckles' tired eyes inspected Shadows' face a few seconds before he answered. A low chuckle found its way out of his mouth.

"Heh… you tell me… did you?" he questioned in a serious manner.

Red eyes lowered themselves on gloved hands that soon were clenched into fists. No matter how much he wanted to deny it, he just couldn't.

"…yes…"

To be continued…


End file.
